BTEC Level 3 Business Assignment Two: Learning Aim B & C Noah McCormack
Market research in action
Introduction
My friends knows that I am a research assistant and one of them has asked me to assist them with
market research on the coffee industry, as they wish to set up a mobile coffee stall business. I will be
using and undertaking secondary and primary research from my local area which is Canterbury. This
will allow me to gather all the correct and useful information about the coffee industry in
Canterbury. Then I will analyse and evaluate my results to help ensure my friend stands out from the
big competitors he will be facing when entering the coffee industry.
Canterbury
Canterbury, a busy market city, located south in the county of Kent, with much of its medieval
character intact. Canterbury is a famous for the home of the Archbishop of Canterbury, head of the
Anglican Church. Regarded as the cradle of English Christianity, designated as one of Britain's
Heritage Cities, Canterbury is also a cultural and entertainment destination boasting numerous
things to see and do and historically significant attractions such as the famous Canterbury Cathedral.
Define the problem:
Problem One A: Competition: Intense Competition
The first problem is intense competition within the Canterbury area. I know this because I live in the
area and have seen first-hand all the different coffee shops and chains already comfortable within
Canterbury. Examples of the main chains are Starbucks, Costa and Café Nero. They are already highly
successful and take up a large market share of the Canterbury coffee scene. On top of this
Canterbury also have many local independent coffee shops and have a few mobile coffee stores.
When my friend is setting up the mobile coffee shop, they will have to think how this could affect
them as it could be hard to start out due to intense competition in the Canterbury area. I would
recommend my friend looks for, a part of Canterbury which has less competition but still a high
demand for coffee.
Problem One B: Competition: Strong Brands
The second problem I have identified is strong brands, strong brands are a problem within
Canterbury. Due to the fact there are already lots of strong branded coffee shops within Canterbury.
This negatively impacts my friend’s mobile coffee shop as people in Canterbury will be more likely to
go to a trusted strong coffee brand rather than a new local mobile coffee shop. The Strong branded
,BTEC Level 3 Business Assignment Two: Learning Aim B & C Noah McCormack
coffee shops in the Canterbury area, are Starbucks, Café Nero and Costa. Starbucks has the strongest
brand as it is worth £110 billion compared to Costa which is worth £56 billion and Café Nero is worth
£26 billion. This is one factor why Starbucks has been able to achieve the highest market share over
Costa and Café Nero because of how well known they are and word of mouth within the local area.
They also win the target market over Costa and Café Nero by the quality of the products, their
marketing tactics their packaging and their loyalty schemes. I would recommend dealing with this by
having price lowing promotions to help achieve a win over the target market. When starting any new
business, it is important to know the different strong brands in the area as you will be competing
with them endlessly. To overcome this and be effective you will have to do certain things in order to
persuade consumers to pick you over the other brands. For example, you will need find out
information on competition, this being their prices, how they are achieving lots of sales, what
markings techniques are they using, what their customers service is like and what type of loyalty
schemes do they offer to their consumers.
Problem Two: Establishing Brands and USPs as unknown business.
The final problem is establishing a brand and a unique selling point as an unknown business within
Canterbury. Starting out as a new business and being unknown can be exceptionally difficult,
therefore it is important to have a unique selling point to catch people’s eyes and a draw attention.
One example of a strong brand that has a unique selling point is Starbucks, their unique selling point
is having a distinctive logo shown by the pictures below and write customers name on their cups to
achieve a more friendly relationship between them and their customers.
On top of this Starbucks have pleasant looking cups that are seen as stylish. Another Starbucks
unique selling point is their high-quality coffee Starbucks offers and a range of trendy coffees to the
public and are enjoyed all over the world for their taste. I would recommend to my friend to adapt
and develop a unique selling point to stand out amongst competitors and to be able to reach target
market and get consistent with successful sales.
Research Objective
SMART Objectives for the three problems identified.
Competition: Intense Competition
My smart objective for intense competition will be to find out how competition in the Canterbury
area operates on a daily basis. Essentially everyone wants to be the best which makes businesses
competitive creating competition with that sector or market, in our case that is the Canterbury
coffee market. My research will consist of looking into competition in the Canterbury area and how
this could impact my friends start up coffee store. This will help identify if there are any gaps in the
,BTEC Level 3 Business Assignment Two: Learning Aim B & C Noah McCormack
market, threats and if its financially visible to enter the market. This is measurable because I have
access to all the coffee shops and able to look in all the coffee shops in a short period as I live in the
area. This is attainable because by looking into all the competition my friend may face in Canterbury,
I can identify information like gaps in the market and can write it all down. This is relevant because
my friend will want to know the competition, he will be facing which will allow my friend to have an
easier time competing with his competitors. I am setting myself one week target to gather all the
information I require for my friends business.
Competition: Strong Brands
My smart objective for strong brands is I have set myself to find out how strong brands have got to
that position they are now, this will involve find information on what makes them a strong brand.
This is measurable because I’m able to find out the data of all strong brands easily with market
research and being time effective at the same time. Its attainable due to the fact there is not a huge
amount of research needed because most of information is easily accessible. It is relevant because
it’s useful market research to do for my friends coffee business, allowing my friend to adapt and
compete with strong brands in the Canterbury area. For this task I am setting a target of a week to
complete.
Establishing Brand and USPs as unknown business
Establishing USP as unknown business- this is important to have a USP so my research objective is to
find other coffee jobs USP and compare and see if we can make our mobile coffee shop even better.
By doing this its specific as I’m going down a narrow path of finding USP its measurable because with
the evidence I will get I am able to help the USP we will create to bring in more consumers. Its
attainable as I am able to do this quickly and efficiently by simply researching or maybe going into
the stores and finding out their USP. I feel like it’s realistic because it will not be hard to find the USP
of the coffee shops within Canterbury as coffee shops like to show why they are different. I will set
myself no longer then one weeks for this task. This will be a good time frame for me to get this done.
Further research Objectives
For all the following research objectives, I will be using SMART objectives to help me achieve the
following research objectives.
Budget
My budget smart objective will be to spend and have a budget of £1500, I think is a resealable
budget for market research. Its specific because I am giving the exact number, which must be abided
by and is measurable due to the fact we are able to do market research within the budget and
should have enough room for any other opportunities that occur. This is attainable due to the fact
within the amount of time we have its not to small compared to if it wasn’t small, we might have
struggled. I decided to increase the budget a bit by £500 so we can be quick and buy what we need
or use the money how we need it, for example questionnaires or adverts. I believe this is realistic
because I have compared it to other budgets and it’s not too big and not to small making it in the
middle of what my friend can afford. For this task I have given myself a target of 3 weeks to achieve.
, BTEC Level 3 Business Assignment Two: Learning Aim B & C Noah McCormack
Primary research
My Primary research smart objective is to create a questionnaire, asking people preferences on
things to do with coffee and the market. This will be beneficial because it will help my primary
research data collection. Which I then can apply to helping my friend start up his mobile coffee shop,
to help ensure my friend gets positive feedback from customers. Its specific as the questionnaire
questions are specific to what information I want to know about the coffee market. One example of
a question is how much do you believe it suitable for a cup of coffee? Which they would be able to
give a response through multiple choice, this is how I obtain specific answers. Its measurable due to
the fact I get the answered questionnaires and factual data. That I can give to my friend to show
what consumers preferences are. Its attainable within a time frame as the process of creating the
questionnaire and getting the results does not take long. I believe its realistic due to the fact I can
give out 10 questionnaires to family and friends to get answers, which will help me a lot in smaller
time frame. For this task my time frame for this is going to be a total of four days, one day to create
the questionnaire and three days of handing them out and getting them back.
Secondary research
My secondary research smart objectivate is extensive research on coffee shops I will do by
researching about coffee shops online, this research will include websites and books. Its specific
because the information is already their waiting for me to use. All I need to do is just find and collect
research so I can lay it out to help my friend on his start-up coffee business. Its measurable due to
the fact I can have all the information, I require through the resources I find and use. This means all
the information will be extremely useful and factual. I believe its attainable for the reason it won’t
take much time as it is quite simple to find information and gather to use for my friends new start up
business. I believe secondary research is important because by gathering data on other coffee shops.
I am able to find prices and statistics which can help determine important factors for my friends
coffee store business. For this task I would give myself five to seven days to find and gather all the
research and to be confident amount my findings.
Sampling Method
The sample method I would choose for my pilot research is simple sampling, this is when you get a
randomised population to try your products. I believe this would overall help me gain data and
reviews on my friends coffee, this is specific because it will only give me reviews on our products.
This is relevant due to the fact we are sampling our coffee which will help us further the coffee by
making improvements if necessary. Its time effective as it quicker than other forms of market
research because you are collecting the data first-hand. For this task I would give myself a week.
