Orlando Baking, Research Paper Example

Define the marketing situation

Orlando Baking Company has no marketing or advertising plan in place. The decisions based on product offerings, product packaging and product pricing are not identified to address a specific target market. Besides, there is no set advertising plan to build brand awareness.

What is the problem that will be researched?

This research will address steps that can be taken by Orlando Baking Company to address and identify their target market. Once the target market has been identified, it will also be necessary to find out the structured advertising plan that can help build Orlando Baking Company’s brand awareness.

A definition of the target population

Orlando Baking is a retail coffee and baking shop that has recently experienced rapid growth in the industry. The cool environment suggests that customers will overflow in the retail shop through out the year. Orlando Baking has established a huge regular customer base. Therefore, most of its businesses will focus on marketing on local residents: this will be the dominant target population. This market will establish a consistent and healthy revenue base that will make sure the business remains stable. Customers to be interviewed are those residing near the location of Orlando Baking because they may have useful information unlike those living further away; they may provide scanty information.

What is your hypothesis?

This study seeks to find out the factors that Orlando Baking Company need to address in order to market their brand to their target audience.

How will the research be structured? 

The most notable thing in conducting a useful research study is through the collection of information that is extremely reliable. This study will accomplish this by using well-designed questions and questionnaire to obtain the information that will provide valid conclusions. This technique of structured questionnaire and questions will employ a list of questions that will be answered separately by the respondents. It may employ open-ended and closed-ended questions. Both types of questions will elicit detailed information that will be analyzed. This paper will use this structure because questionnaires require low costs compared to other methods of research. Respondents in this section will be free from bias and they will be able to provide their response at their own convenience thus ensuring confidentiality. However, this structure has its own drawbacks arising from biasness of the results, which may be based on the opinions of the respondents verses all the other participants. This may result in to distorted conclusions if the questionnaires were not properly understood.

Assess the strengths and weaknesses of the basic methods for collecting primary data and recommend a methodology for the study.

A researcher can use observation or communication to obtain primary data. Communication requires that the researcher ask the respondents questions to which they respond. This is a very versatile method of obtaining information because it requires an individual to ask for information; as a result, it might draw inaccurate response. Communication is cheaper and quick compared to observation. Observation entails recording actions of selected samples and it involves the use of an electronic device. Observation is not versatile as some attributes of the respondent may not be readily observable. They include awareness, attitudes, motivation, and intentions. However, data obtained through observation are more accurate than communication (Brace 12).

Questionnaire Design methodology will be used because it is the most vital tool for gathering any relevant primary data is through the questionnaire. Designing the questionnaire calls for significant efforts because if questions are poorly constructed, it can lead to invalidation of research data and large errors (Faarup, Hansen and Aabroe 18).

Understand and discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary sources to gather relevant data about the issue(s).

Secondary sources of gathering data have the advantage of saving time while reducing the costs involved. The disadvantage of using secondary sources of data is that the data collected may not be in line with the problem at hand directly thus raising issues of inaccuracy. It may be more difficult to ensure accuracy in verifying secondary data (Lastesomar, 21).

Secondary data can be obtained from organizations that engage in distributing and summarizing of data. This research paper notes that there are some advantage s and disadvantages associated with secondary data. Therefore, the researcher will have to be careful to summarize the data collected and no to rely solely on the summary done by others. By doing this, the researcher will be able to see a variety of possible bias and errors thus taking the required precaution in advance. However, it will not be easy to overcome some of the errors, but knowing that they exist will assist the researcher to draw informed conclusions thus establishing some degree of confidence in the results. This paper will strive to achieve accuracy of secondary data through reducing errors in investigation. Potential errors such as accuracy can be reduced by verifying the data collected. Failure to validate such data suggests that the secondary data is not genuine (Lastesomar, 62).

Given a population and desired level of precision, recommend an optimum sample size and method to gather the necessary research data within budget and time constraints.

I recommend that the research take a random sample of between 30-40 respondents to be used in the analysis. In order to obtain valid and reliable data, the respondents will be treated as potentially different population. Data collection method for this research will be interviews: this involves holding conversations with the respondents

Develop a marketing research questionnaire, including a copy as an addendum to your paper. You will turn in this phase of the assignment to your instructor in Week 4 and then you will make any changes suggested and include it in the final project.

Questionnaire:

1. Please, select your age bracket:
2. Indicate your income in bracket form:
3. Level of education:
4. When you shop for bread, what products catch your eye? Explain Why. Price or Packaging?
5. When you shop for bread, are you concerned primarily with price?
6. Is taste and quality of bread such as low preservative something you take into consideration when purchasing bread product.
7. Do you mind paying more for a higher quality bread product? (Example low preservatives)
8. What form of advertising do you respond to best: TV, radio, billboards, print ads, internet, social media, or mobile?

Identify areas of ethical concern and make recommendations for the appropriate behavior of respondents and users of marketing research.

Ethical conflict arises when a researcher perceives that his or her duties are more serious than the duties and responsibilities of the respondent group. Therefore, such opposing obligations must be addressed. For every respondent, there is a corresponding obligation on the side of the researcher. To deal with such issues, this study recommends that the researcher should be respectful of an individual’s right to privacy. Principles of ethics suggest that the respondents have the right to remain anonymous in any research. The researcher is obliged to guard any personal information provided by respondents (Faarup, Hansen, and Aabroe 26).

Recommend elements for the reporting should be developed with results from the study to make sure that the findings are actionable.

Upper Management President, CEO, Vice President of Sales, and Marketing Director will find this information vital because they use it to make assessments on the accountability and effectiveness of the program thus making informed investment decisions. Other elements include the Mass media comprising of radio, TV, magazines and newspapers. These tools are powerful in reaching a significant number of people. Management can use findings of research studies to create and build awareness of the brand (Roe 35).

Also, think about next steps: is there an appropriate next step for a study?

The next step would be conducting a data analysis and giving out the results of the study. Data analysis involves reviewing of the research objectives. This will assist the researcher in organizing the data and to remain focused throughout the analysis. The most crucial step in any market research is reporting and presenting the research findings. There are many different styles just as there are research methods. Different reports are meant for different levels of people. Therefore, there must be a difference in the scope and level of reports. Finally, every market research must elicit conclusions and recommendations. This involves converting data into relevant information that draws conclusions. The management needs this final information to reduce any uncertainties and risks in the decisions made by the management (Brace 14).

References

Lastesomar. Market Research Best Practice: 30 Visions for the Future. New York: Cengage Learning, 2007. Print.

Roe, Michael. Market Research in Action. Cengage Learning EMEA, 2004. Print

Faarup Poul, Hansen Kenneth, and Aabroe Jacob. Market Research and Statistics. Belmont, CA: Thomson Wadsworth, 2010. Print.

Brace, Ian. An Introduction to Market & Social Research: Planning & Using Research Tools & Techniques. Kogan Page Publishers, 2006. Print