P3: Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the development of its marketing plans.
P4: Use marketing research for marketing planning
M2: Explain the limitations of marketing research used to contribute to the development of a selected organisation’s marketin...
P3: Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing research to contribute to the
development of its marketing plan
Market research aims to find out the characteristics of their audience, their spending habits, where
they live and work and their needs and interests. A business would be interested in knowing a
number of different behaviours of the customer, this includes their age, gender, earnings, marital
status, who they live with, their hobbies and interests, what holidays they take and the type of car
they drive. Market research is also useful for a business to find out the behaviours of their
competitors to make it easier to know what they can do to outdo them; they would be interested in
finding out their prices, quality of their products, target audience and what they do to advertise their
products/services. Businesses may also want to find out about what is happening in the business
environment and would carry out market research to inform themselves about this, examples of
what a business would want to know about their business environment are whether there is a
recession or boom, what is currently fashionable (are people more weight conscious? If so they
wouldn’t want McDonalds) and government initiatives, for example if they started taxing sugar, this
would lead to an increase in McDonalds prices.
There are two different types of research these are primary research and secondary research,
primary research is carried out by businesses to find new information for the purpose of their
business, and this can be done through observations, experiments, surveys and field trials.
Secondary research is research that has been completed previously by another business, for a
different purpose. Internal secondary research is information such as sales, loyalty schemes, website
statistics and account records, whereas external secondary research are news reports, trade journals
and market analysis. Data produced from market research can be classified in two forms,
quantitative which is numbers or figures, for example ratings or a rise in sales percentage, the other
form is qualitative this is information in a worded form, for example a review or customer
information.
McDonalds would use many different methods of research, such as surveys to find out customer
opinions and observations to find out what customers mostly buy. Secondary research would also be
used by McDonalds, for example they could look at their sales and compare these to KFC or Burger
King figures, they could also see how competitors advertise and see how they can improve, they
could also look at government statistics and news reports about how the country feel about fast
food restaurants.
McDonalds would be interested in doing market research to find out behaviours of their customers
such as the age range of customers and what different ages purchase which product, the location
and who they live with and any hobbies or interests they have. It is essential that McDonalds knows
this information so they can advertise and market their products to the correct people, efficiently.
Secondly, McDonalds would conduct market research to find out the behaviours of their
competitors, they would be interested in finding out the price and quality of their products, whether
different products have different target audiences and how they advertise. McDonalds would want
to gain knowledge in these areas for companies such as Subway, Burger King and KFC to ensure that
they are offering the best products, to the most efficient range of people and at a good price,
McDonalds would not have much custom if their burgers were £2 more than Burger King’s.
Lastly, McDonalds would be interested in researching what was happening in the business
environment, for example they should find out whether the UK was in a recession or boom, if the
country was in a recession and McDonalds invested a lot of money into an advertising campaign, it
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