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How does market research contribute to marketing planning
Implementation of market research
Implementation of market research
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Market Research Case Study: Sperry/MacLennan
Market research is vital to any business looking to expand into new markets. Global market research is a major function for organizations to facilitate marketing decisions outside their respectable country. Effective global market research requires analyzing market data, such as environmental factors, government regulations, needs of the target market, customer interests, price, and available resources. The following is a case study analysis of architectural firm Sperry/MacLennan (S/M), based in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia, which is seeking to expand their market in other countries. The analysis includes an overview of Sperry/MacLennan’s situation, identifies their key issues as well as ways in which to address those issues, and explains how market research is valuable in business.
Sperry/MacLennan’s Background
Sperry/MacLennan (S/M), founded in 1972, is an architectural firm specializing in recreational facilities. The company gained national recognition in 1983 when they were awarded the contract to design an aquatics facility for the Canada Games held in Saint John, which secured their reputation as a “good design firm specializing in sports facilities” (Aaker, Kumar, & Day, 2007, p. 73). Success continued for S/M the years following with multiple projects both on the books and in process. By 1987 the company’s revenue was around $1.2 million, although after expenses and payroll their profits were a mere 4.5% of the revenue. Further awards followed, including the winning of a very prestigious $10,000 Canadian Architect Grand Award, which “is given by fellow architects in recognition of design excellence” (Aaker, Kumar, & Day, 2007, p. 73).
Sperry/MacLennan’s Situation
In August...
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...rget goals.
Sperry/MacLennan uses market research to determine what international markets are the best matches for their services. The firm carefully weighs the pros and cons of each international market to come to the decision that the New England territory within the United States and possibly the affluent European nations are the most fruitful markets. Without these careful considerations based on their market research Sperry/MacLennan could set itself up for failure by entering into a market not ideally matched for their operations.
Works Cited
Aaker, D. A., Kumar, V., & Day, G. S. (2007). Marketing Research (9th ed.). Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley & Sons.
APPA (Association of Physical Plant Administrators). (2012, Spring). About Us. Retrieved from http://www.appa.org/InternationalCorner/unitedKingdom.cfm and http://www.appa.org/Research/FPI/index.cfm
The Jones Blair Company has increased sales on an annual basis, but the sales volume has stayed the same. This is due to the high cost of research and development in their products. The company is in fear of facing a plateau in price and being able stay competitive in the industry. Jones Blair needs to determine where and how the company will market its architectural products in the southern US.
Spokane Industries has contracted Franklin Electronics for an 18 month product development contract. Franklin Electronics is new to using project management methodologies and has not been exposed to earned value management methodologies. Even though Franklin and Spokane have worked together in the past, they have mainly used fixed-price contracts with little to no stipulations. For this project, Spokane Industries is requiring Franklin Electronics to use formalized project management methodologies, earned value cost schedules, and schedules for reports and meetings. Since Franklin Electronics had no experience with earned value management, the cost accounting group was trained in the methodology in order to bid for the project.
Sakarya, S., Eckman, M. & Hyllegard, K. H. (2007). Market Selection for International Expansion - Assessing Opportunities in Emerging Markets. International Marketing Review, 24(2), 208-238.
These issues could have been resolved if a proper market analysis was done. The outcome of this research could have suggested that it best suits highly populated areas. The objective of this research is to help a company or an entrepreneur understand the business environment better as well as customers’ needs and, therefore, make better business decisions. Once the market research data is compiled, it is then evaluated upon which recommendations and conclusions are drawn.
Market research is used to gather information about the marketplace. By using this data, the company decides what the local needs and tastes are, how the segmentation should be made and which segment gives priority to what features. According to the results the company launches new products or modifies their existing products for the given market.
Grover, R & Vriens, M 2006, The handbook of marketing research: Uses, misuses, and future
Marketers focus on desires and wants of individuals, groups and societies. They focus on individual demand, market demand and the trend in society. Nowadays companies are establishing their businesses in the oversea markets. Mathur (2012) points out that international marketing involves a firm-level marketing practices across the border and aims at identifying market targets, entry mode strategies, marketing mix, and making the right decisions to compete well in global markets. Globalisation has progressed considerably in the past decade, due to recent communication advancement, improved transportation, few legal restrictions and political stability in many parts of the globe which have opened markets to international trade and finance. Various companies have been successful in global marketing such as Bosideng, which is a Chinese company which creates men's clothing and down wear. This report focuses on various market entry strategies, marketing principles and strategic decisions made by most companies which have been successful in international marketing like Bosideng.
Malthotr, N , Birks, D & Wills, B (2012). Marketing Research AN APPLIED APPROACH. 4th ed. England: Pearson Education Limited. Pages 101-590.
As this paper has shown there are numerous ways to conduct market research. A successful marketer and organization will understand how to choose the marketing tools that will work the best for their intended desires. However, the most effective way to oversee market research is to utilize both primary and secondary research to attain an organizations research goals and success.
Marketing research is a very vital part of any marketing intelligence system and helps improve the management decision making by providing information that is relevant, accurate, precise and timely. Every decision that poses unique needs for information and related strategies can be developed based on information gathered through marketing research in action. Too often, marketing research is considered narrow for the collection and analysis of data for others to use but still they come in very handy. Firms can achieve and maintain a competitive advantage through the creative use of this market information. Thus marketing research can be defined as the decisions made on the basis of input information and not just evaluation of these decisions. This research alone, however, does not guarantee success. The decisions made for marketing involves issues ranging from the fundamental changes in the business to the decision to enter new markets and expand plus to bridge the tactical question of the best ways to keep retail shelves and occupy most of the visibility. Context of these decisions is market process of planning, acting successively through four stages, analysis of the situation, strategy development, marketing program development and implementation. It serves as an input to the assessment of the situation. As observed, the intelligent use of market research is the key to business performance and hence at each stage, it has made significant contributions to the growth of the company and help to sustain in the ever changing market.
Michael D’Amico defines market research as a “broad range of activities that encompasses the gathering and analyzing of facts relevant to problems arising during the transfer and sale of goods and services “(41). Business owners tend to avoid any sort of effort that might involve marketing research. Many think that marketing research is too expensive, or that it is not worth the trouble, when in fact it is. Mark...
Successful businesses carry out researches on a continuous basis to gauge the market trends and to maintain a competitive edge by implementing appropriate measures. Regardless of whether a business is at an initial stage or expanding, market research is considered to be a compulsory activity that provides a better understanding of the targeted market as well as increasing product sales.
Businesses want information to make decision about their management as well as specify their strategy to survive in market. Managers need to access, develop, analyse and distribute information to help them making decision. Marketing research is the way to gather information in area that link to consumer to figure out what they want to contribute company opportunity in market as well as organization developing because of uncertainly market need. There is several method of marketing research that company can use for improve their products or services. Depending on analysis procedure, qualitative research and quantitative research are used to highlight. Moreover, each method leads to different result. (Malhotra et al 2001) However, marketing research should be qualitative which give researchers a depth data that sufficient for interpretation. This information can be used to determine business plan, company’s strategy and also providing goods or product that market need on time.
Conducting marketing research in the workplace of an international business is important in improving key marketing decisions. Unlike the vagueness of general business research, marketing research has a formal set of guidelines to follow in order to gather data and analyze it. This method is essentially a problem solving method, where the solution is found using data collection and analysis. There are three distinct methods of generating marketing research: exploratory, descriptive, and casual research (Smith 2012). Exploratory research is used when trying to define and solve a major international marketing issue. Exploratory research is used to come to a solution to a marketing problem by studying different options and clarifying major marketing concepts. Descriptive research defines questions and forms a method of analysis prior to data collection (Smith 2012). Casual research is as simple as its name. With casual research, people are looking to find a cause and effect relationship between two variables in a less structured way. The three of these are very general marketing research strategies, but in order to apply them to international business, they must be focused on globally and internationally versus locally. Finding marketing strategies that encompass more than one culture and demographic is essential to the success of any international
On the other hand, weaknesses existed. The primary research was the most difficult and frustrating sector, for it was difficult to keep in touch with the potential competitors; hence, a chance to learn more and analyse deeper from the potential competitors was missed. To conclude, the result and analysis of primary and market research which was based on the questionnaire was not convincing enough, and it was the main sector which needed to improve in the future.