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P2 Explain how different market research methods have been used tomake a marketing decision within a selected situation or business
Introduction
British Airways is a full service global airline, offering year round low fares and flag carrier
airline of the United Kingdom Founded in 1924 as previously known as Imperial Airways,
and operated under that name until 1935. In 1939, the airline was nationalized to form the
British Overseas Airways Corporation (BOAC) following on in 1972, BOAC and BEA (Bureau
of Economic Analysis) were combined under the British Airways Board. The mission of BA
was to be the world's favourite airline provider, giving the full service experience and
achieving the target on both, in-flight and on the ground. Some basic information about BA is
that they currently have 40,000 employees and a turnover of 11.719 billion, housing over
280 aircrafts and 40 million customers a year.
Primary research methods
Focus groups
For British Airways to succeed as a leading industry business they should frequently conduct
market research, so they are able to communicate with their customers and acknowledge
trends in the market and the requested needs and desires from the customers that they
expect from BA. A primary research method that British Airways would use is focus groups,
having the ability to gather diverse stakeholder types into a discussion allows various
opinions to be brought up. This type of marketing research is the best method because BA
has a large customer base, by targeting all key stakeholder types they can collect all data
and opinions on behalf of each segment. This will contribute to making a generalised
decision that will positively impact all stakeholders and the market. British Airways does not
have the time or resources to individually supply the needs for all stakeholders, hence they
may all have different requirements which may combat each other, by generalising an
outcome it will make all stakeholder groups relatively satisfied, which will be enough for them
to continuously come back to the company. From the focus groups the results that they
retain are primarily opinion based which categorises under qualitative data, in this situation
having opinions from each stakeholder group enables British Airways the flexibility to
compare and narrow down the needs and wants from each segment, so then a conformed
decision that benefits everyone can be agreed and implemented. The advantages of using
focus groups to assist decision making is that it gathers all necessary participants into one
space, British Airways do not have to waste time traveling to different areas to conduct a
discussion with each stakeholder type. In addition, focus groups are normally recorded due
to the amounts of information produced, therefore British Airways are able to utilize this data
at any time when needed. The disadvantages however may be that gathering all stakeholder
types increases the possibility of arguments and disruptions from the point of the focus
group. Due to the stakeholders differences in needs and wants this may spark confliction
which is time wasting for British Airways.
, Interviews
Another research method that is common for British Airways to utilize would be interviews.
BA are a business to consumer operator; in that they trade with customers in their market.
By conducting interviews with the customers, they can acknowledge what features they
would like to see from British Airways. Interviews they conduct can either be done over
telephone or face to face, whichever suits the customers best in answering their questions.
Face to face interviews tend to be more popular as representatives can pick up on tone and
body language when consumers are responding, this will help to justify the claims that they
make and therefore help British Airways to make a better marketing decision. This research
form is different from a focus group because in a one to one discussion the representative
gains the full attention and all responses from one individual instead of lots of people
speaking at one time. This method may be timelier than a focus group however could
provide more precise information for British Airways to analyse. A comparison between the
focus group and interview is that the data collected is very detailed with opinions from
multiple candidates, in this circumstance qualitative data may outweigh the need of
quantitative because it gives an outlook of their opinion on the business instead of providing
the same numbers time and time again, they are receiving various different explanations
which will assist in making a better marketing decision. The advantages of using interviews
would be that the consumer's attention is fixated on answering the questions and tone and
body language can be analysed when answering questions. Another advantage is that the
sample of candidates can be large which will provide lots of data, this supports British
Airways in conducting better analysis with the more responses they receive. A drawback of
utilizing interviews as a research method would be finding the participants, running into
people in the street is impractical as they may not have the time to put effort into responses
and people may be in a rush.
Secondary research methods
Online resources/Internet
The internet has become the most valuable resource for all businesses globally which meant
it became part and parcel of any organization to make and convey business and marketing
decisions. The internet contains billions of domains full of marketing information that
businesses utilize to generate marketing strategies, in addition this marketing research
method is extremely efficient at locating data for the businesses which is one of the benefits
it possesses. It is undisputed to say the internet has a vast impact on marketing research, it
is taking over as the prime desk research method as alternative secondary research
methods can now be found online like libraries and books. British Airways are strictly an
ecommerce brand meaning most of their business transactions happen online, subsequently
having a huge online presence means they should know their way round the internet and
online markets as this is the field which they operate within. There are a couple ways in
which the internet supports British Airways in making a marketing decision, access to billions
of resources, information at reach and exchanging data globally at rapid speeds. Accessing
information through the Internet is an efficient alternative to hours spent with traditional
sources like libraries. The Internet connects businesses, academic institutions, trade
associations, government agencies and private individuals. Having connections with these
diverse sectors allows for improved marketing decisions to be made with access to
enhanced sources of data. Secondly, if British Airways wished to find information then the
resources are just a couple clicks away, this enables the organization to increase
productivity of their employees as they are able to formulate responses/results faster than
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