MARKETING RESEARCH

Marketing Research for a Company HMV Group

[Name of the writer]

[Name of the institution]

Marketing Research for a Company HMV Group

Introduction

The changing technological environment has increased activity on the internet and as a result businesses are evolving by taking their products and services to the net. The concept of ecommerce as a result is becoming very popular in the local as well as in the international market. “Simply put, e-commerce is the online transaction of business, featuring linked computer systems of the vendor, host, and buyer. Electronic transactions involve the transfer of ownership or rights to use a good or service.” ('What Is E-Commerceo') Ecommerce essentially can take the form of e-tailing, gathering and using information pertaining to demographics on the internet, as well as electronic data interchange whereby different business can exchange information with each other through online portals.

The categories of ecommerce take the form of transaction between businesses and consumers, transactions between trading partners, information and data gathering and processing as well as the dissemination of information. In the business and consumer category the business and customers interact over an online portal in public networks through which the business seek to provide information, services as well as sell products to the customers. The most common of such portals is the online shopping option.

The category of trading partners pertains to the use of electronic data interchange in order to exchange information as well as to trade products and services amongst businesses. Marketplaces can take the form of such online options. In the information gathering and processing category, the ecommerce option is used to conduct research and employ it for problem solving and decision making. Moreover it can also be employed in other business functions like customer relationship management and supply chain management. The information dissemination category however pertains to businesses sharing information with consumers with the internet of marketing and advertising their products and services to them.

This report however is drawn up in accordance with the HMV group and their HMV online ecommerce website. The purpose of this report is to provide an analysis of the current ecommerce sit hosted and managed by the company and provide how further improvements and changes in the ecommerce option can provide HMV with the much needed extra value and competitive edge in the market. The trend in the music industry in the recent years has depicted that the customers are going online to access their favorite songs and tunes. As a result the HMV Music and Video stores and benefit by targeting this market.

THE HMV Company

The HMV Group is a company which is predominantly active in the retail business. They have stores situated in UK, Canada, and Hong Kong, Singapore as well as in Japan. The company deals with music and books, the music business is dealt through the HMV record label while the books are managed under the name of Waterstone's.

The retail stores of the company are branded flagship stores and are present in the high street markets of the ...