Considerable Elements For Marketing Research By Expert’s Answer

Assessment:

Being the Marketing Manager for Harvey Norman Australia, it is my responsibility to work collaboratively and in consultation with the purchasing department to coordinate the marketing campaigns that are presented on television and brochures.

Task 1

1. The main elements to be included in the research policies and procedures that is to be followed by the research contractor,

For this project, the main elements to be included in the research policies and procedures that is to be followed by the research contractor are;

• To conduct market research or industry research contracts, so that rational business choices can be taken.
• Market research however should not substitute management decisions, it is a method for helping to make rational management decisions.
• The job of research as part of the growth of businesses is important, which is why research contractors will take this into account.
• It is very important to keep the information collected for the organization competitive or to launch a new product.

A detailed and properly planned market research plan can enable you to find out whether you want to:

• Enter a new market or launch a new product or service
• Promote brand awareness
• Optimise your marketing campaign
• Improve customer service
• Change messaging perception of your product or service
• Adjust price points
• Change your product packaging or delivery method
• Investigate competition
• Examine the size of the market

2. The main elements to be covered when you internally develop a market research project plan,

A market research plan will be reflective of the overall business plan, which is usually part of the marketing campaign. The Marketing plan outlines the sector and the target customer growth approach. It specifies what is going to be sold, and how much is going to be priced, and to which buyers. Pricing and advertising efforts are also included in the marketing plan. Following are the main elements to be covered when you internally develop a market research project plan:

• Conduct market research
• Identify market targets
• Analyze environmental and industry data
• Identify your customers
• Complete a S.W.O.T. analysis
• Identify competitors
• Advertising & sales

3. The process to gain funding approval to implement market research project plan and work plan,

The marketing research plan can rely on obtaining support, and will need to be in a proposal format. Primary stakeholders may play a role in accepting the funding request, or the funding could come from an outside source. Your plan to fund a project for market research can make up part of a round of applications requests inside a large company and negotiate against other funding projects. You may need to work closely with main stakeholders and discuss. Organizational policies and procedures may evaluate the criteria and offer input on the form of projects to be supported.

Funding may be allocated in the year at various times, and an application must be submitted within a defined period for funding eligibility. Before you may apply for financing, you will need to create the project plan with the work schedules identifying the required resources including all the specifications. Before funding is permitted, you may need to discuss and choose a shortlist of contractors and record all these information.

Moreover, government funded agencies, including regular monitoring and expenditure acquittals, should include structures and policies that restrict and explain the mechanism to request for funding in depth. Private organizations receiving government or state funding for a project would often have to follow strict and rigorous reporting standards.

Task 2

Market research is an essential part of any project plan which need expertise of specialist. But, it is not necessary that every organization has that expert who has complete and proper market knowledge. In the absence of an internal expert person to conduct market research, there is a need to select external contractor who has skills and market knowledge. The selection of an external contractor or consultant involve proper due diligence.

1. Identify the specific requirements for external consultants to follow in the market research project plan

In order to identify the requirements for external contractors or consultants will entail an evaluation of the project plan. You may opt to employ a contractor to undertake the market research so you can make educated business decisions about product releases, positioning or efficiency. To have a competitive edge, you can employ an external contractor to collect insights and data that are unique to your business. Or you might employ a consultant if you want to make sure that you get impartial reports from an authoritative viewpoint. It may even be that within your organization, you might not have the expertise or resources.

The benefits of hiring external market contractor are that they have market intelligence experience, are always readily accessible and can blend with the team. In general, they can have a range of talents, experience, and abilities that cannot be contained inside the organization. However, external contractor participation can be constrained by the budget allocated. In fact, there are many benefits to employing external marketing consultants including new insight, guidance from outside the sector, honest suggestions and flexibility etc.

2. Outline the products that your organization would like the research conducted on

To undertake market research, you will develop a project plan to outline and cover the following products and areas:

• Establish a research project
• Conduct the research project
• Analyze the findings of the research project
• Summarize and present the findings of the research project
• Assess the findings of the research project

3. Discuss the ways of qualifying external consultants from there the potential consultants could be selected

Dozens of possible options may emerge as you conduct an internet search for a market research consultant or company. But providers may also have specific capabilities, shortcomings and perspectives within the same field. You need to align the skills and expertise of the service provider to your needs. Some companies may have consultant participation corporate protocols.

In order to select potential consultants you need to figure out which fields they are working in depending on their prior knowledge in specific field ventures. Question them what techniques they use for the study. Question them what their business perception of competence is, to see how it aligns with your objectives and values. That will help you find a balance for your project needs. Create a short list and then question them how they’re going to handle the project and what analysis technique they’re going to use, and then consider if it suits the intent of the organization.

4. Discuss the process involved and elements covered when selecting and contracting external consultant

Selection of an external consultant would be focused on a common understanding of the requirements of the project and a comprehensive approach to selection. This process will be focused on the details given in the Request for Proposal. Organization must have the required resources and emphasis to handle external consultants according to the project brief and contractual specifications. As planned, you will get updates, statistics and details.  However, organizing, and chairing important meetings will be your job. Then you must check your policies are carried out in meetings. Your job is to demonstrate leadership skills and coordination, and maintain the process of consistency. In addition, organizing and overseeing the staff to fulfill their tasks and monitor external consultants. Following are some ways to do so:

• Progress reports
• Meetings – in person and phone hook-ups
• Virtual meetings
• Group ware – software applications

By monitoring processes, you can handle external consultants and the project process.

Task 3

1. Monitor the activities of the market research organization to confirm adherence to your agreed market research project plan and work plans, and consistency with organizational market research policy and procedures

Monitoring the activities of a research plan is important because a research plan can entail pointless mistakes that can be avoided if checked thoroughly. The monitoring of work plan by the organization might involve modifying the work plan if it is required because the researcher might have written through h/her ideas about how a research plan should be written which can be completely different from the organization’s idea of a research plan. Therefore, set up meetings or a one on one meeting with the researcher to go through the whole plan is necessary. The organization can also set up meeting with its employees to see whether the plan will work or not. These activities can be essential in monitoring the market research. This process of monitoring the activities of the market research organization will confirm adherence to the agreed market research project plan and work plans, and bring consistency with organizational market research policy and procedures.

2. Outline what you would expect the marketing organisation to communicate to your at the milestone meetings concerning progress of the plan

There are many things that a marketing organization would communicate but my expectation would be that the organization would tell me the pointless and silly mistakes that I have made in the plan. The organization will discuss how to implement this plan along with marketing department. The organization would ask me from where I have taken the ideas for the research plan then they will check if they are relevant or not. The organization can also ask me to keep track of plan after the implementation through social media, feedback of the customers and how many people are interacting with the plan. These are the things that I think can be discussed in a meeting concerning progress of the plan with the organization.

Task 4

1. How would you confirm the accuracy of information and results determined by the market research organisation?

In order to confirm the accuracy of information and results determined by the market research organization, there is a process of evaluation. Evaluation process includes contrasting the real impacts of the project to the defined plans. This refers at what you wanted to achieve, what you did and how you achieved this. It may be influential, happening during project life. Also, it can be formative assessments, drawing lessons from a finished project. Evaluation of research results and procedure may involve feedback by both internal and external parties. To ensure the accuracy of the results, the evaluation process looks at reliability, efficiency and performance, which can be carried out as:

• Self-evaluation
• Group evaluation
• Rapid group evaluation
• External evaluation
• Interactive evaluation

2. How would you compare the results of the research against research objectives outlined in market research project plan?

You would need to go back and evaluate the project plan to the results and assess the relevance and effectiveness of the findings against the research goals identified in the market research project plan. You will equate the findings with the following:

• The statement of the problem
• The purpose of the research project
• The primary and secondary research requirements
• The research question
• The research design
• The sampling plan
• The instrument i.e. questionnaire

3. How would you gauge stakeholder satisfaction with the research process and findings?

A stakeholder will either gain some benefits or sacrifice some value from the project’s results and outcomes. Therefore, it is important to evaluate the stakeholders of your market research project, and define their standards. You first work towards achieving those standards and finally test to verify that those standards are fulfilled. The method of defining stakeholders and their preferences is called stakeholder analysis which will be carried out when project starts and again carried out at the end of the project when findings are visible. Stakeholders comprise of; agencies, associations, organizations, groups or individuals. Stakeholders in your market research project may include:

• Board of Directors
• Chief executive officer
• Management committee
• Marketing personnel
• Other managers
• Owners
• Manufacturing personnel
• Senior management team
• Project team members
• Supervisors
• Team members

You should have performed stakeholders’ analysis to obtain feedback from those who have control regarding project progress. When the research is complete, you need to establish appropriate metrics for assessing the satisfaction of stakeholders. After the results are reported and conveyed to stakeholders, assess and evaluate their opinions.

4. How would you conduct a review of the research process for the purpose of continuous improvement?

A process of continuous improvement in the research process is a systematic, long-term commitment to development in operation, commodity, and service while doing research. Such activities will try to change “incrementally” over time or “breakthrough” all at once. Continuous improvement usually seek to:

• Improve efficiency
• Improve consistency
• Lower Costs

Every project has the potential to make the upcoming project work better. It will have important lessons to chart the effective and not so effective facets of a project. When you cannot record this material and make it accessible inside the organization you stand a good chance of making the same errors over and over again. And updating the research process is an integral aspect of continuous improvement. Getting time-poor will also mean that you’re too busy reviewing a job while going to the next one. But taking the time to represent and record the process through a post-implementation review, is important. This review may determine more steps to be taken or, where appropriate, procedures and policies to be implemented and an action plan or work plan created to incorporate improvements. A post-implementation review report should outline the results, be rational and include suggestions illustrating both observations and market implications.

5. What process would you use to implement modifications if required?

A post-implementation review process is used to implement modifications where needed. A post-implementation review process and its concern documents will catch this research and make this knowledge accessible to the whole of the enterprise. It could be an extra step until the project is completed or operated as part of the project. Getting ready a period of time to conclude this phase can be helpful, allowing time to compile and tabulate more details on how the experiment was performed, instead of a compilation of the results. It will also guarantee that attention and concentration remain on the execution of the results, as many productive initiatives rarely yield the expected profit or outcome.