Who Buys Royal Mint's Coins - Research Proposal Example

?The Royal Mint [The of the will appear here] [The of the will appear here] [The of the Introduction The Royal Mint is the official organization responsible for the minting of coins in the United Kingdom. Moreover, it mints coins for more than 60 other countries of the world. Apart from minting coins, Royal Mint also generates profits from the minting and exporting of coins and medals for special occasions such as the Olympics Games that are going to be held in 2012. Royal Mint is a government owned body under the ownership of HM Treasury. The company is located in South Wales and employees more than 900 people (Royal Mint, 2012) The Royal Mint has won the advantage of minting Olympic coins for the Olympic event to be held in London in 2012. For this, Royal Mint has started minting and distributing coins since 2009 and has even changed UK regulations to mint kilo gold coins in limited edition. In this paper, the aim is to develop a suitable marketing strategy, through a sound marketing research, for Royal Mint in order to generate good revenues from the venture (Royal Mint, 2009) Marketing Research Marketing Research has been defined by Philip Kotler as ‘the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific situation facing the company’ (Blankenship, Breen and Dutka, 1998; 7) While market research is only concerned with collecting data on the market and analyzing it, marketing research involves a broader spectrum. It provides information on the market, the customer as well as the community. It provides sound information to the marketing managers to develop a good marketing strategy based on the external environment as well as the internal environment. Marketing research allows decision makers to make the right marketing decision under guidance from the data collected. Marketing research is usually conducted for launching a new product in the market so that managers may make better decisions by understanding the market and the needs of the consumers. The most important aspect of every marketing research is the identification of the problem which is done through a proper knowledge of the background of the situation (Malhotra, et. al, 2002). Background of the Situation With the Olympic Games being held in London for 2012, the Royal Mint has been selected to commemorate the minting, distribution and marketing of the Olympic Coins. Royal Mint, for the designing of the coins, opened up a Royal Mint Public Competition for making the designs of the coins. Out of the 30,000 entries, only 29 designs were chosen for the different sports (BBC, 2010). Furthermore, the UK government changed its legislation to accommodate the new half kilo gold coins for the special occasion. Olympic Coins have been introduced in Olympic Games since the time of the Greeks. The purpose of the Olympic coins was to act as a souvenir for the games so that the ordinary people would relate with the game also. They should also become part of the legacy by buying the coins and eventually promoting Olympic Games (Preuss, 2004). Even though the Royal Mint is a leading coin producer in UK and has expanded into the global arena since a long time, it is the first time that the organization has been selected to mint coins for an occasion as big as the Olympic Games. Therefore in order to effectively launch and market its products, the organization needs to conduct a marketing research. Problem Definition Problem Definition is the most important aspect of the marketing research as it forms the foundation of the marketing research. If the researchers are able to identify the problem correctly, the marketing research is made easier and more effective. In the case of the Royal Mint, the problem is the effective manner of launching Olympic Coins in the public. Royal Mint has little or no experience in this particular field since they have not minted coins for commercial purposes on such a vast level. The question here is not whether to launch the product but rather when, where and how to launch the product. Research Objectives The objectives of conducting the marketing research would be as follows: Identifying the target market for the Olympic Coins: The entire population of UK would not obviously be the target market for Olympic coins. There are generally groups of customer more interested in the coins. These could be coin collectors and Olympic game fans etc. The idea is to identify the target market. Connecting with the particular target market: Once the target market is selected, the next phase is to understand how to interest the target market in the coins. The objective thus is to understand this target market so that managers can decide on the strategy that would work best for this target market. Requirements of the Target Market: The target market has certain requirements of the products such as the price and the quality of the product. Marketing Constraints: This relates to the barriers that Royal Mint may face when marketing their product. Marketing constraints include the presence of high market saturation, lack of experience, high start-up costs etc. Research Design Since Royal Mint is initiating a relatively new market by manufacturing and selling Olympic coins, it needs to conduct a descriptive research. Descriptive research is suitable for organizations when they need to conduct in-depth analysis of the situation to figure out who, when, how, where and what of the situation. At this time, Royal Mint has no experience in marketing Olympic coins; therefore a description marketing research is imperative for the organization. Descriptive marketing research would allow Royal Mint to ‘measure the market size, market structure, and the behavior and attitudes of the consumers in the marketplace’ (Kent, 1993; 6). The purpose of the descriptive research here would also be to segment the market (Sarstedt and Mooi, 2011) in terms of people who would consider buying the Olympic coins and their reasons for buying the coins. The type of descriptive research that needs to be conducted by Royal Mint should be cross-sectional study. These are one time research conducted to gather data for a group of consumers at one time only (Parasuruman, Grewal and Krishnan, 2006). Cross-sectional study would be most appropriate for Royal Mint since the Olympic Games are periodic events and the coins that are going to be marketed by Royal Mint would only be sold for a limited time period. Their demand would be at the peak during the Olympic Games and would greatly fluctuate downwards after that. Sampling It would be impossible to conduct a marketing research for the entire customers of the Olympic Coins since these coins have gained worldwide popularity and demand. Even within the UK market, it would be impossible to conduct a survey on such a large scale. In order to solve this issue, marketing research employees the method of sampling whereby a group of segmented customers are selected on whom the survey would be conducted. Sampling allows marketers to take a part of the whole and to infer the attitude of the whole through the attitude of the part (McDainels and Gates, 1998). The sample population for this marketing research would be the main customers of the Olympic Games. These would broadly include Olympic Game fans and also coin collectors. The target market would also be customers who would be coming to London from all parts of Europe and the rest of the world to watch the games and take back the coins as souvenirs. A total of 20 people would be selected for this marketing research. Data Collection Methods The data would be collected from the survey conducted on the sample population through the cross-sectional study. The sample population for this study would be contacted through the internet through a marketing campaign. In this marketing campaign, Royal Mint would be calling forth the coin collectors and Olympic Fans to participate in a survey for a chance to win a series of Olympic Coins. Royal Mint can also add a perk by getting a signed pack from an Olympic Gold Medalist in order to make the package more interesting. Once the sample population is collected, they would have to be sorted out randomly by Royal Mint marketing research team. Once the sample population is selected, they would be contacted and would be asked to visit a specified place for focus group. When conducting the research, the moderator of the focus group needs to understand that there are certain limitations of the research. This would include intentional error on the part of the sample population to mould the results of the survey towards their advantage. Data Processing and Analysis Once the focus group is conducted, the researchers are left with a vast amount of raw data that needs to be processed and analyzed before valid assumptions and meanings can be derived from the collected information. Once the data is collected, it needs to be compiled in an effective manner. The researcher would need to check for errors, biasness or incomplete answers before he sends the data for processing. The researcher would have to omit certain people from the recorded data if their information is incomplete or inconsistent since it would negatively impact the results of the marketing research. For the purpose of this marketing research, data would be processed and analyzed through the process of coding. The process of coding involves representing ‘the way a specific meaning is assigned to a response within previously edited data’ (Zikmund and Babin, 2009; 353). This can be done by assigning codes or meaning to specific statements or opinions given by the sample population. Reporting Once the data is collected, analyzed and recorded, it is then sent further for reporting. The marketing research team developed for this research would be directly reporting to the marketing manager. The data that is analyzed thus need to be compiled in the form of a formal report. This report would give a background history of the issue along with the research question that is formed for this marketing research. The report would also contain the methods of collecting and analyzing the data along with the limitations that the team had to face when conducting the research. The marketing would lastly clearly lay down the outcomes of the marketing research. They could additionally provide their own recommendations to the marketing manager that would be considered when the strategy for the marketing of the Olympic coins would be developed. Costs and Time Table Since Royal Mint is a large organization and it is undertaking a sound business venture in the form of marketing and manufacturing Olympic Coins, it would be incurring a good amount of cost in the marketing research process. Most of the costs that Royal Mint would be incurring in this marketing research would be when they contact and connect with the sample population. The marketing campaign aimed to contact the focus group would cost around $200-300 for the company. Additionally arranging for the focus group would cost an additional 500 dollars. The estimated cost of the marketing research would be $1000. The Timetable for the marketing research would be as follows: Initiation Phase: 1 week- Collecting background information on the subject. Planning Phase: 2 weeks: Using the information collected, the team would develop a suitable plan for conducting the research. Planning would include determining the cost of the research as well as the major factors such as contacting sample population, the delimitation of the research, the actual research design etc. Focus Group Recruitment- 2 weeks: The focus group would be recruited and selected during this time period through a small marketing campaign that would offer benefits to the sample population Conducting the Research: 1 week: The research would be conducted within a span of one week. Analyzing the Data: 1 week: The data would be analyzed through the process of coding. Reporting of the Results: 1 week: During this time, the final report would be developed which would be presented to the marketing manager (Hague and Morgan, 2004). Conclusion In conclusion, we can say that the marketing research that would be conducted by Royal Mint would allow the organization to benefit from an insight into the minds of the customers. It would allow Royal Mint to understand who buys these coins and the reasons for the purchases. Based on the reasons for the purchases that the sample population provides, Royal Mint would be developing their marketing campaign. The chances of this marketing campaign backfiring would be low since it would be based on good solid information. The information will be collected through a descriptive research design that would use cross-sectional design over a sample population of 20 people. These people would be subjected to a focus group and the information collected would be analyzed through the process of coding. Finally it would be presented to the marketing manager in the form of a formal report. References BBC, 2010. London 2012 Olympic 50p coins go into circulation, Retrieved from http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-11527266 Blankenship, A. B., Breen, G. and Dukta, A. 1998. State of The Art Marketing Research, NewYork: McGraw-Hill Professional Hague, N. and Morgan, C. 2004. Market Research in Practice: A Guide to the Basics, USAL Kogan Page Publishers Kent, R. 1993. Marketing Research in Action, New York: Taylor & Francis Malhotra, N., Hall, J., Shaw, M., and Oppenheim, P. 2002. Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 2nd Edition, Australia: Pearson Education McDaniel, C. and Gates, R. 1998. Marketing Research Essentials, New York: Taylor & Francis Parasuraman, A., Grewal, D. and Krishnanm R. 2006. Marketing Research, Ohio: Cengage Learning Preuss, H. 2004. The Economics of Staging the Olympics: A Comparison of the Games, 1972-2008, UK: Edward Elgar Publishing Sarstedt, M. and Mooi, E. 2011. A Concise Guide to Market Research: The Process, Data, and Methods Using IBM SPSS Statistics, New York: Springer The Royal Mint. 2012. About Us, Retrieved from http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus The Royal Mint, 2009, Royal Mint Counts Down to London 2012 with Special Coin, Retrieved from http://www.royalmint.com/aboutus/news/announcing-count-down-to-london-2012-coin Zikmund, W. and Babin, B. 2009. Essentials of Marketing Research, Ohio: Cengage Learning Read More