Marketing Research Plan



Marketing Research Plan

1.1 Introduction

A local manager of a sports shop in Harrow, Janice Reynolds, has decided to start up her own business. She hopes to set up a sole trader sports retail outlet somewhere in the local area.

In this paper I am going to prepare a market research paper for my product which is sport products in US.

Marketing a business deals with many issues, these are:

How to promote the business.

How to compete, while gaining profit, with the other sports shops.

What the other sports shops are doing.

Who the target market should be.

What pricing policy to use.

Products to sell.

Where to locate the business.

1.2 Marketing

What is the definition of 'marketing'? Here I will research the different definitions of marketing. I will use various sources to find the definitions, for example, textbooks, the Internet etc. Here are the definitions and their sources:

Marketing is defined as a social and managerial process by which individuals and groups obtain what they need and want through creating and exchanging products and values with others(Zikmund 2003). The goals of marketing is to attract new customers by promising superior value and keep and grow current customers by delivering satisfaction. There are five core concepts of marketing, which includes needs, wants and demand; products, services and experience; value, satisfaction and quality; exchanges, transactions and relationships; and finally, market and marketing.

To illustrate the marketing concept, Chisnall (1991)said:

"If we want to know what business is, we must first start with its purpose... There is only one valid definition of business purpose: to create a customer. What business thinks it produces is not of first importance - especially not to the future of the business or to its success. What the customer thinks he/she is buying, what he/she considers "value" is decisive - it determines what a business is, what it produces, and whether it will prosper."

Marketing concept was considered a breakthrough in business philosophy. It's because it represented the antithesis of the product, production, and selling concepts. The marketing concept holds that businesses should first determine the existing needs in the marketplace and then design and produce a product to satisfy this need rather than taking an existing product and endeavoring to modify demand for it by reducing price or varying promotional technique.

2. Methodology

The report in which I shall produce will provide sufficient information for organization to start up sports shop business successfully. In order to do this the following questions will need to be answered:

How to promote the business.

How to compete, while gaining profit, with the other sports shops(Zikmund 2003).

What the other sports shops are doing.

Who the target market should be.

What pricing policy to use.

Products to sell.

Where to locate the business.

Some very detailed research will need to be carried out in order to gather all the answers or suggestions for the various questions. My research will consist of a detailed questionnaire with a large set of answers. Also, information will be gathered from written texts, people, organisations/businesses and electronic sources. The research will investigate the following issues(Malhotra 2006):

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