The Role of Marketing Assistant of Cardiff HQ for Castle Leisure - Case Study Example

? Castle Bingo Table of Contents Castle Bingo Table of Contents 2 Introduction 3 About Market Research 4 Research Proposal for Castle Leisure 6 Research Problem 6 Sample Design 6 Target Population 7 Sampling frame 7 Sampling technique 7 Sample size 8 Process of Execution 8 Data Analysis 9 Reference 10 Introduction The world of the 21st century promotes an environment of rapid change and tremendous development. The fast evolution of the internet in the last couple of years has presented a massive change in the modes of connectivity all over the world. Also, the faster acceptance of various kinds of modern day high technology gadgets has resulted in the process of high level of connectivity to masses all over the world. It is important to mention the fact that the emergence of high level of connectivity amongst the masses around the world has resulted in the process of faster diffusion of various kinds of global trends. The rapid spreading of global trends in various corners of the world is bringing in a massive change in regards to consumer demands as consumers are starting to get more and more demanding in nature. It is wise to highlight the fact that as a result of emergence of various kinds of global trends, the consumers around the world are increasingly focusing on the process of getting products and services that provides better value for money. On the course of bringing in a revolutionary change in regards to the consumer behaviour and demand expectations of the masses, the global trends are also clearing the way for the emergence of new markets. Organizations around the world are trying their best to enter into the newly emerging markets for the purpose of capitalizing on significant business opportunities as well as possible avenues of future growth. This is resulting in the creation of a tremendously competitive business environment. In order to gain a significant edge in the market in regards to its competitors, the companies around the world are trying to gain as much information as possible in regards to the respective clients and consumers. This endeavour of organizations around the world to gather the latest information from the market has resulted in the emergence of the importance of market research. About Market Research It can be said that the market research is often identified as the function which helps in generating a lot of insight in regards to the consumers, customers, clients as well as the associated stakeholders of a business firm or organization (Kolb, 2008, p. 7). It helps the business organization to significantly identify the various patterns and trends that are existent in the market in regards to the consumer behaviour as well as the latest market trends that exists in various geographical regions (ESOMAR, 2007, p. 37). Talking in a more detailed manner, the function of market research comprises of a lot of functions like determining and indentifying the research problem, designing the questionnaire or the survey instrument, designing the nature of research to be conducted as well as the entire methodology related to data collection. It also has to be said that the market research process also involves significant amount of analysis of various relevant data that has been collected by the market researchers through the process of administration of the questionnaire. It is very important to mention that the marketing research has a high linkage in regards to marketing. It has to be said that the process of marketing talks in broad details about the implementation of the product, place, promotion and price in the market place though effective segmentation, targeting and positioning. It has to be said that the process of market research paves the way for effective segmentation, targeting and positioning of the product and service to the right target audience through the gathering of the information in regards to the trends of the market as well as that of the customers. It has to be said that the market research paves a linkage between the value expectation of the consumer as well as the value intended to be delivered by the firm through their product or service offerings for a particular market or geographical location (Burns and Bush, 2009, p. 8) While approaching the market research issue, it has to be said that the researcher can decide on the nature of the market research he or she is interested to conduct. Talking on this note, it can be said that the research design and approach can be either exploratory or descriptive or causal in nature. An exploratory research design is highly instrument when the researcher intends to find out and explore the various issues and variables that might have significant impact in regards to the main research problem. It has to be said that in this particular case, the researcher intends to find out new variables that might be contributing the main research problem (Wrenn and et.al, 2002, p. 30). While discussing descriptive research, the researcher focuses on the process of determining the relationships that might exist between the two or more multiple variables.(Churchill and lacobucci, 2009, p. 58) While undertaking a research approach on the lines of causal research, the main focus of the researcher is to determine the cause and effect relationship between the selected variables (McDaniel and Gates, 1998, p. 196). It is also of significant importance to mention the fact that the researcher who is initiating the market research can decide to opt for either qualitative or quantitative research. In the case of qualitative research, the researcher can work towards gathering the relevant data while using various kinds of secondary data sources. Also relevant primary data for qualitative natured research can be gathered by conducting interviews as well as administering open ended questionnaires. However, in case of conducting a quantitative based research, it has to be said that the researcher is largely focused on the process of conduction of closed ended interviews and questionnaires. It has to be said that in the case of gathering of primary data for quantitative kind of research, the focus is largely on the collection of respondents data by using itemised rating scales like Likert Scale, semantic differential scale etc (McDaniel and Gates, 1998, p. 245, 247). Research Proposal for Castle Leisure It has to be said that this particular marketing research oriented assignment requires the researcher to assume the role of Marketing Assistant of Cardiff HQ for Castle Leisure. Research Problem It is important to mention the fact that every research proposal is largely guided by a research question. It will be highly effective to mention that the research problem forms the core theme of the market research endeavour and it helps the market researcher to decide on the nature and method of research that he or she is going to implement for effective solution seeking to the intended research problem. It has to be said that the main market research problem is to find out the characteristics and behaviour of the offline as well as online gamers for Castle Leisure. It is of high importance to mention that the nature of the market research will be primary in nature. The reason behind focusing on conducting a primary market research is because of the fact that the research problem intends to gather the latest information in regards to the behaviour of the gamers of Castle Leisure. Sample Design While talking about sample design, it is of high importance to consider the fact that the research question intends to finds out information in regards to the characteristics and behaviour of the gamers of Castle Leisure. Hence, while deciding on the nature of research approach, it can be said that it will be highly appropriate for the researcher to proceed with exploratory kind of primary natured market research. Target Population It can be said that the target population for a market research study essentially comprises of the entire group of individuals from whom relevant information can be extracted (Moore, 2010, p. 202). It is of high importance to mention the fact that the selected population should normally have direct exposure or usage experience in regards to the product or services for which information needs to be gathered. However, rather than focusing on collecting data from each and every member of the population, small representatives of the population are chosen which is often represented by samples. In this particular research based assignment, it can be said that the data will be collected from the sample respondents who are gamers in the online and offline format. Talking in a more specific manner for data collection, it has to be said that the sampling unit which will be used to collect data will be a questionnaire kind of a survey instrument which will be administered using either the online of offline format. Sampling frame Talking about the sampling frame, it can be said that the data will be collected from the respondents who fall in the category of either online or offline gamers. However, the sampling frame will restrict the process of short listing of candidates from mostly the gaming areas of New South Wales as well as in England. Also, the sampling frame will select the gamers who are in some associated with Castle Leisure. Sampling technique Talking in regards to sampling technique, it can be said that the researcher can consider using either probability based sampling or non probability based sampling technique while focusing on collecting the data. Talking in a little elaborate manner, it can be said that the techniques associated with non probability sampling comprises of convenience sampling, judgemental sampling, quota sampling and snowball sampling (Malhotra & Dash, 2008, p. 340). While discussing on the lines of probability based sampling techniques, the tools and techniques essentially comprises of simple random sampling, systematic sampling, stratified sampling, cluster sampling etc (Malhotra & Dash, 2010, p. 338 ). It is of high importance to mention the fact that in this particular case, the respondents’ data need to be collected using the simple random sampling, which falls under the category of probability based sampling technique (Babble, 2012, p. 209). While elaborating the process of simple random sampling, it is important to mention that each and every sample of the population has a high and equal chance of getting selected (Black, 2011, p. 226). This probability sampling has been selected because the data needs to be collected from the group of respondents who are gamers of the Castle Leisure and hence comprises of a closed group of audience. Sample size While taking into consideration, the highly diversified geographical locations for the gaming zones of Castle Leisure as well as the possible extended reach of the consumers because of the online mode, a sample size of around 500 seems justifiable. Process of Execution While discussing the execution process that has to be implemented for the collection of data from the respondents, it has to be said that the data will be collected using the simple random sampling technique. The respondents will comprise of the gamers that are associated with Castle Leisure in the online as well as the offline format. It is also important to mention that a questionnaire, which will comprise mainly of questions in regards to the demography as well behavioural pattern, will be used to collect relevant information from the respondents. Also, it can be said that the questionnaire will be administered in the traditional format as well as the online format, since the data needs to be collected from both offline and online gamers of Castle Leisure. Data Analysis After the collection of data from the gamers of Castle Leisure, using the online as well as the offline and traditional medium, it can be said that the data needs to be analyzed in the right manner. The data analysis is a very important activity in the entire market research activity, since this helps in uncovering various new patterns and insights that might not have been existed before. The data analysis strategy for the market research endeavour of Castle Leisure will normally comprise of the usage of pie charts, bar graphs, histograms since they help in easy understanding of the information provided by the targeted and selected respondents. Reference Kolb, B., 2008. Marketing Research: A Practical Approach. London: Sage Publications. Malhotra, N.K. & Dash, S., 2008 Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 5/E. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Black, K., 2011. Business Statistics: For Contemporary Decision Making. USA: John wiley & Sons. Babble, E.R., 2012. The Practice of Social Research. USA: Cengage Learning. Malhotra, N.K. & Dash, S., 2010. Marketing Research: An Applied Orientation, 6/E. India: Dorling Kindersley Pvt. Ltd. Moore, D.S., 2010. The Basic Practice of Statistics. USA: W.H Freeman and Company. McDaniel, C., and Gates, R., 1998 Marketing Research Essentials. USA: International Thomson Publishing. Churchill, G.A, and lacobucci, J.D., 2009. Marketing Research: Methodological Functions. USA: Cengage Learning. Wrenn, W.B., and et.al, 2002. Marketing Research: Text and Cases. New York: Routledge. Burns, A.C., and Bush, R.F., 2009.Marketing Research, 5/E. India: Dorling Kindersley Publishing. ESOMAR, 2007. Market Research Handbook. UK: John Wiley and Sons. Bibliography Capello, R. and et.al, Globalization and Regional Growth in Europe: Past Trends and Future Scenarios.New York: Springer Verlag Berlin Heidelberg. Parasuraman, A., and et.al., 2009. Marketing Research, 2009 ed. New Delhi: Himal Impressions. Gupta, S.L., 2003. 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