Rebecca Linfoot Assignment two Unit 22
Unit 22: Market Research
Market research plan
I have been asked to “assist a friend with market research”, in order to find out if there is a
gap in the market for a new niche service in the town of Beverly. I need to use market
research, in particular primary and secondary, to see if opening a new vegan restaurant
would create a new place of opportunity for people who support veganism and assure that
the business will stand out from the other local competitors. My research objectives that I
would like to achieve when doing my primary and secondary research in Beverly include:
1.Finding out if there is a demand in Beverly for a vegan food
2.To analyse the change in trends
3.To analyse the target audience
For this task, I have a budget of £0.00 due to the research being held through college and
not receiving any funding. Because of this, the types of research methods I am able to do
have become limited. I have chosen to do a questionnaire and an interview for my primary
research. In addition to this, I have chosen to look at current vegan restaurants online and
read about the current trends in veganism through newspaper reports for my secondary
research. This information I will collect, will help give me a strong insight to see if opening a
vegan restaurant will meet customer wants and needs. Furthermore, I will be able to see if
there is room to diversify eating choices specific for dietary requirements (veganism) in the
local area. However, if I was given a larger budget I could use a more expensive research
method such as holding a focus group. This would be more beneficial than doing a small
questionnaire because it would allow me to achieve a clear insight through a thorough
discussion in comparison to asking closed-ended questions. For my primary questionnaire I
will be using probability sampling, with a sample size of 50 consumers. If I was to be given a
budget towards my questionnaire for my primary research, I would realistically need to
spend £10,000 for this live task. This is because with the large amount of money, the sample
size could greatly increase and also it would ensure that the data would be reliable, more
suitable for analysing.
What is market research?
Market research means ‘gathering data from different sources which is then analysed and
evaluated to identify trends.’ Businesses will monitor their competitors to see what they are
doing and why. This is important because, a business will learn about potential gaps in the
market. Furthermore, a business will able to see what threats other businesses oppose and
have the opportunity to alter or improve their provided products or service. Businesses may
also research their consumers to understand customer behaviour and feedback. In addition
to this, market research also allows a business to find out information such as sales data,
effects on the price market and thirdly promotional methods. Market research is critical for
any businesses start up, to see if they are likely to survive. If a business doesn’t do any
research before starting up, there may already be a competitor providing the same product
or service, meaning that they are at a large disadvantage. Research is also useful for
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, Rebecca Linfoot Assignment two Unit 22
businesses that are developed, as there is the chance of being able to increase profit. There
are four types of market research a business can use to find out important information that
is useful to making positive alterations. This includes: Primary, Secondary, Qualitative and
Quantitative research.
Primary research
Primary research is where a business will compose and collect significant information first
hand. A business may ask questions which are easy to analyse through methods such as
surveys, questionnaires, interviews and also through focus groups. Primary research is
beneficial, because it allows a business to focus on a specific purpose. As the questions are
written by the business, it means that other competitors are unable to access the collected
information. The data is not shared online and therefore other businesses don’t have the
opportunity to improve their provided service or products, using the same questions. On the
other hand, primary research is expensive to collect as material is not already available. This
means that a business must conduct their own research which costs money. In addition to
this, the process of creating a survey, finding consumers to answer the questions and then
having to analyse the data, is time consuming. However, through doing an in-depth analysis
to help address a certain problem, the information collected can help a business determine
which products are most profitable or in demand. Even more so, it shows gaps for
improvements in their service, meaning that there will be a result in a reduction of the
overall problems that the business wanted to elaborate on initially. Primary research is split
into two sub categories of experimental and non-experimental methods.
Secondary research
Secondary research involves analysing statistics and data from secondary sources. This can
be from any data available on the internet, looking in books at public libraries and also
through commercial information sources, such as magazines or newspapers. In comparison
to primary research, this method is more cost effective and less time consuming, as the data
can be quickly accessed. Information on the internet in particular, can be posted by anyone
in the world and there is both a positive and negative to this. On the plus side, data is largely
available however, it could be out-of-date or be unreliable. It can be hard to trust what is
posted online and therefore a business should make sure they check dates about posts and
look at the author before considering to use their information. Secondary research is the
starting point for primary research. A business should find out material about competitors
and consumers and this can be through social media apps such as Facebook or Instagram, or
even reading a local newspaper. It is important that a business looks at information already
available so they know what type of questions to write up. This then means that they can
look at bigger issues such as needing to develop a new product or promote their brand. This
secondary research is categorised into internal and external information. Internal research
includes data that lies within a business such as sales invoices and customers. External
research involves examples such as the public media and the government that is out of
control of the business.
Qualitative research
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