BTEC Level 3 Business Extended Diploma Unit 22 Market Research Assignment 1 DISTINCTION
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Course
Unit 22 Market Research
Institution
PEARSON (PEARSON)
BTEC Level 3 Business Extended Diploma: Unit 22 Market Research Assignment 1. Distinction criteria met. This Assignment is very well structured with easy to read subheadings and appropriate images. Using this Assignment as your template will ensure you attain Distinction. Please read the criteria ...
Learning Aim A Examine the types of market research used in a business.
Introduction
My chosen business for my assignment is going to be on my old jobs company, which is McDonalds.
McDonalds is a international company all across the world, McDonald’s is in a total of 118 different
countries. It has a total of 38,695 restaurants/stores around the world in 2020 and plans to increase
this number even more. The very first McDonalds restaurant was opened on the 15 April 1955, San
Bernardino, California, United States and expanded ever since. According to two reports published
in 2018, McDonald's is the world's second-largest private employer with 1.7 million employees,
making it a large business enterprises in term of size. McDonalds requires a lot of market research to
reach the company’s objectives; this year the McDonalds is striving to improve their restaurant
shopping experience by renovating their stores to a more modern style and to increase net sales by
8%. Helping them remain in the number one spot in the fast food industry in the Uk and the world.
This report will explain and assess the different market research methods used by the McDonalds,
linking the findings with the McDonalds’ objectives. Also, in the report it will justify the use of
professional marketing agencies for carrying out original market research.
McDonald’s Marketing objective
Mission McDonald's brand mission is to be our customers' favourite place and way to eat
and drink. Our worldwide operations are aligned around a global strategy called the Plan to
Win, which centre on an exceptional customer experience – People, Products, Place, Price
and Promotion.
P1: Explain the range of market research methods used by a selected business.
Purpose of market research.
Understand customer behavior
Consumer behavior is the study of induvial and organizations how they select and use products and
services. McDonalds do understand the importance of understanding customer behavior, as it allows
them to understand who wants to buy their products and use their services. It also
allows McDonalds to get more sales and better customer satisfaction from their customers which is
something McDonalds strive to do. Another benefit McDonalds gain from understanding
customer behavior is it helps them decide how they are going to establish on how they are going to
influence and convince their customers to buy McDonald’s products. This gives McDonalds an
advantage as it will makes it easier for them to hit marketing objectives and long-term goals such as
hitting their 8% increase net sales for next year. One form of research McDonalds use to understand
customer behavior is through primary research. An example of this is McDonalds use surveys which
they get their customers to do after they have used McDonalds services the surveys are on the
McDonalds app which asks how they found McDonalds service while using them and what they can
improve on. These surveys also involve asking things such as how often they buy McDonalds or what
they would rate McDonalds on a scale of 1 to 5. Therefore, by McDonalds doing this they will get a
clear image of patterns, views and a better understanding of their customers behaviors. With the
surveys they can find out what customer enjoy and customers dislike, once they gathered this
information, they can then use it to do any inaccuracy changes if needed. Another example of
Primary research McDonalds use to understand customer behaviour, is McDonalds do focus groups
every 6 months with 15 random customers who volunteer. In these focus groups they will sit down
,with a senior McDonalds manger and be asked questions by then manger, such as how they find the
service and what can be improved on. In conclusion I believe these are appropriate methods in
helping MacDonald’s meet marketing objectivates and inform decisions making. As it gives
McDonalds a clear image on their customer behaviour and what decisions making, they are doing
correct and what decision making needs to be changed. If MacDonald’s did not track buying
behaviour this would impact the business. This is because they would be losing out on important
information on their customers, such as customer patterns and behaviours. This would impact
McDonalds as their marketing for their customers would not be as effective. They would not have
the information on what customers most popular product is or which products customer don’t like.
For example, if McDonalds was selling a product which 99% of their customers did not like and
McDonalds did not know this information and continued to sell the product. This would likely have
an impact on customer satisfaction as McDonalds would be selling products which their customers
do not like. Resulting in customers being put off with McDonalds. Not having this customer
behaviour information would give MacDonald’s a disadvantage over business which track customer
behaviour information.
An example of McDonalds changing things due to customer buying behavior, would be when they
add new products to their menu but failed. An example of one of these products, is when
McDonalds bring out McSpaghetti.
McSpaghtti came out in 1970s, McDonald's introduced McSpaghetti to little fanfare. Customers
weren't interested in the Italian menu item, and it ended up being removed shortly after its debut.
This example shows how McDonalds changed something due to their customers behaviour. Due to
customer not like McSpaghtti and not buying it, McDonalds came up with the decision to change and
remove McSpaggeti of their menus. This is just one of many examples of failed items McDonalds
have tried adding to their menu, but due to customer buying behaviour they had to change the
menus by removing these new products from menus. The link above has more examples of new
products being added to the McDonalds menu. But due to customer buying behaviour McDonalds
came up with the decision of removing them from the McDonalds menu. McDonald’s also did
surveys on the Mcspagetting but all the average score was 1.5 start out of 5. Five being excellent and
1 being terrible.
In conclusion this research shows that McDonalds has met that they understand customer buying
behavior. This example shows McDonalds brought a new product out adding it to their menu, but
due to customer not buying it. It resulted in McDonalds coming up with the decision to changing and
removing it from their menu. This shows that McDonalds was looking at the statistics of sales of the
McSpaggeti and realized it was not meeting it’s the targets they expected. McDonalds would also
have looked at the survey/reviews which customer gave. McDonalds would of came up with a
decision such as due to it not reaching it sales targets and bad reviews, it proved to McDonalds that
, their customer did not like the Mcspagetti and needed to be removed from the menu. This shows
how McDonalds adapt and make change due to customer behavior.
Advantage of understanding customer behavior is it helps in the development of new products.
Before launching a new product proper study of consumer tastes EG food tasting and behaviour
avoids later failure and loss. This is particularly true for food items and daily consumption products.
It is equally true for fashion goods like garments, cosmetics, cigarettes and new flavours of existing
products. In certain cases, if a product is reintroduced after a long gap this type of study helps. This
benefit McDonalds as it gives them a clear idea of what people/customer may think of the product
and give them a clear indication if they need to improve on anything or if the product is fine the way
it is.
On the other hand, the disadvantage McDonalds have from food testing it will only give a view from
small amount of people compared to their customer size. Which could result in a backfire as the
people testing it could like the product but big amounts of MacDonald’s customer may not. An
example of this happening is when McDonalds bring the Mcrib sandwich back out.
I believe McDonalds should still do this food tasting to understand customer behavior as it still gives
them more information and data then not doing it. It also gives a view on what some of their
customer may think of a product.
A disadvantage of understanding customer behavior is that it can biased. For example, when
McDonalds do their surveys with customers. Yes, they get a clear image and answer of what
customers think of products at McDonald’s. On the other hand, different customer prefers different
things at McDonalds. For example, people who prefer chicken over beef, are more likely going to say
better things about the chicken products then the beef products. The same thing for the people who
prefer beef over chicken. They are going to more likely say better things about the beef products
then the chicken products. This would impact McDonalds as it could not give them a correct view on
understanding customer behavior.
In conclusion I believe the best way to for MacDonald’s to understand customer behavior is looking
at their sales records and customer data. This shows clear customer behavior and understanding of
customers as it allows MacDonald’s to see a clear view of what is most popular and what is the least
popular product. It shows what people are buying the most and what people are least buying the
most. It will also allow them to have an easy time of hitting market objectives as it is the best way to
understand customer behavior. This news article agrees with my claim.
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