Bsbins603 Initiate And Lead Applied Research - Marketing Research

The following tasks need to be completed to put together a great research brief. A brief should contain some, and ideally all, of the following information. Complete all the following tasks: 
Task 1. Market and Strategic Overview 
This helps researchers understand where this project fits in the overall strategy, vision and values, and business objectives. It also helps to plan, conduct and report on applied research relevant to organisational strategic practices and outcomes

Define the market and explain its dynamics

Major players and key competitors

Past and current activity

Target markets (description of the geographical, cultural, social or institutional context within which the research will be carried out) Factors such as regulations, Seasonality, distribution, pricing, communication, etc 
Task 2. Background and Role of the Research 
This is the most important part Of the brief, as it specifies where the research fits in your marketing activity, and more specifically, the types of decisions and plans that will be made based on the research:

Reasons for the research

Where does it fit into marketing programme development?

Which business units does the research impact and who is involved?

make sure you identify any constraints on the action you can take because of the research 
Task 3. Objectives 
There are usually two types of objectives that need to be explained:

Business objective - this is the objective of the marketing project the research is for, it is the overall strategic objective

Research objective - detailed objectives of what you need to know e.g. attitudes, behaviour, usage expectations, perceptions.

Market and strategic overview

7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd. is one of the major convenience chain stores in Australia. The private company is owned by the Withers and Barlow family. According to the report by IBIS World (2018), 7-Eleven holds 117^th position among the top 2000 companies in Australia. The major source of income of this company is food retailing. It has been found that the company does not focus much on the marketing programs, which is a key factor in the competitive market to expand its size. This paper presents a research brief on conducting a research for 7-Eleven to analyze its market and recommend ways to increase the size of its target market.

7-Eleven was first opened in August 1977 in Australia. It has it’s headquarter in Melbourne and currently operates over 670 stores across all the states and territories in Australia (7eleven.com.au, 2018). It is one of the most popular convenience stores in the country. According to the features of convenience stores, 7-Eleven fulfills the needs of the customers regarding basic things. The store can serve the changing needs of the customers on the go. The stores are mostly located near the downtowns or central business districts and on the highways, to cater the needs of the office goers and tourists. It stores brands like Slurpee Beverages, Krispy Kreme Doughnuts, $1 coffee, Hot Chockee, Treats, Refreshment beverages, such as, energy drinks, Juice, soft drinks, Sports drinks, etc., 7-Eleven Fuel, BankWest ATM Facilities, Stationery & Gifts, Game Cards, MoneyGram, 7-Eleven Branded Top-Ups (Milk, Bread, Pet Food, Toothpaste, Frozen Meals, Cleaning Products, Soft Drinks & Ice Creams), News, Magazines & Entertainment, Transport Tickets & Top-Ups, Personal Care & Cleaning, Auto & Car Care and many more (Ibisworld.com.au., 2018). These product and service range were chosen such that the customers can get the most basic things under one roof in a convenient place rather than driving to the big supermarkets, especially while travelling on a highway. It also offers the fuel and delis which enables the customers to grab food while filling up the gas.

The key competitors of 7-Eleven are the big supermarkets of Australia, such as, Coles, Woolworths, and other convenience stores such as EzyMart, NightOwl Convenience Stores etc. and some stores operated by the gas companies like, Exxon Mobil, Shell etc. (Ausfoodnews.com.au, 2012).

Since beginning, 7-Eleven has focused on providing a wide range of items including packaged foods, fuel, ATM services, and other type of necessary products and services for the customers at their convenient locations (7eleven.com.au, 2018). Over the years, it has expanded its range of products to meet the needs of the not only the local residents but also for the tourists.

To conduct the research on the issues regarding the market size of 7-Eleven, the target market will consist of customers and employees of the company. 3 stores will be selected in and around Melbourne, and a survey will be conducted on some of the customers and employees of each store. Geographical segmentation will be beneficial for cultural context as the customers groups will include the international tourists as well. These segmentations would also help in understanding the social and economic implications as a certain percentage of the customer group is price sensitive, and affects the sales of 7-Eleven. Apart from that, the regulations, seasonal sales, pricing and communication, which is not emphasized by the company will also be considered for the research.

Background and role of the research

The research will focus on the development of marketing programs for 7-Eleven. As it does not spend much or not aggressively promoting its brand, the company is losing out some of its market share in the competitive world. Hence, the research will be carried out to find out the customers and the employees perceptions regarding the products and services and to evaluate the scopes of improvement. The need for marketing will also be assessed through the research. This will help 7-Eleven to plan and implement measures to develop a marketing program. Marketing or promotional activities are important for reaching to a wider audience and to increase its popularity, the company must focus on marketing activities.

The research will impact the marketing and PR department of 7-Eleven the most, followed by the finance and accounts department. The employees and supervisors of those departments will be involved in developing the marketing program and sales department will also be involved for in-store promotional activities. The customers of 3 stores will be involved to collect the data on the stores’ products and services as well as on the impact of promotional activities.

The research work might face some constraints in terms of communicating with the customers regarding the purpose of the research, voluntary participation from the customer groups, accuracy of data, budget, and access to the secondary data, such as, the annual reports etc. to get the statistics on the market position of the company.

The mission of 7-Eleven Australia is to be the best in the country in meeting the dynamic needs of the convenience customers. Its vision is to maintain its position as the first choice of the customers in terms of the customer preference and achieve market share through sustainable growth while maintaining the highest level of ethics (7eleven.com.au., 2018). 7-Eleven operates with the values of farness, integrity, excellence, bold endeavors, prime importance to the customers and the attitude for caring. Thus, it can be said that 7-Eleven aims to serve the convenience customers, irrespective of their nationality, in the best possible manner to make their journey or living easier. To achieve this goal, 7-Eleven must expand its business and reach out to a larger target audience within Australia. Through the research, the company will be able to identify the areas that need strategic planning and hence, can take actions accordingly.

The research study aims to find out the ways to improve 7-Eleven’s marketing strategies or actions to increase its market share in Australia. The company needs to focus on developing or improving its marketing and promotional strategy to expand its business or customer base to stay at the top of the market. Thus, the objectives of the research study are:

• To evaluate the market opportunities,
• To examine the existing promotional activities of 7-Eleven,
• To identify the areas for improvement for the company and recommend measures for the improvement.

To carry out the research work, it is essential know about certain attributes of the target customers. Hence, the characteristics of the target customer profile must be studied thoroughly. Those attributes are attitude, perceptions, customer behavior, tastes and preferences, and usage expectation. These factors are highly important influential factors in determining the business performance of a company. Thus, it is important to assess the impact of these attributes of the customers while designing new marketing or promotional strategies. Moreover, it is also crucial to understand the nature of the problems and appropriate ways to address those. In other words, while conducting the research study, it is important to understand the nature of the problems and objectives, that is, whether the research problem and objectives can be explored qualitatively to get the best possible outcome, or if those should be measured, recorded or ascertained using quantitative methods. Based on the type of research objectives, the research methods are chosen (Taylor, Bogdan & DeVault, 2015).

Objectives

In the given study, the marketing strategies of 7-Eleven will be evaluated and new ways will be found for improving the marketing techniques and strategies. Hence, there are both qualitative and quantitative objectives of the study. On one hand, the existing marketing strategies and promotional activities of 7-Eleven will be explored, which is a qualitative objective, and on the other hand, the impact of these strategies on the customers and impact of the customers’ perception on the business performances will be measured, which is quantitative objective. Thus, 7-Eleven should not only examine and identify the scopes of improvement in their marketing program, but should also focus on implementing the new ways or measures to have the optimum impact on their market share. However, the research brief will present the findings of a pilot study before undertaking a large scale market research.

• What are the reasons that influence the customers to go to a convenience store like 7-Eleven?
• Do these stores meet the needs of the convenience customers?
• Do the international tourists also visit the 7-Eleven convenience stores?
• What is the perception of the customers regarding the promotional activities and its impact on the popularity of 7-Eleven stores?

7-Eleven has more than 670 chain stores across Australia (7eleven.com.au, 2018). Thus, the customers of all these stores create the population for the study. The customers will belong to different economic classes, race, age, gender, nationality and will have different purposes. However, it is not possible to study the entire population due to time and budget constraints and robustness. Thus, a sample size will be drawn using simple random sampling technique for conducting a pilot study. This sampling technique reduces the biasness in the data (Dobson, Woller-Skar & Green, 2017). Three 7-Eleven stores in and around Melbourne will be chosen randomly and 10 customers from each of the stores will be chosen randomly for conducting the survey. Hence, a total of 30 people will be reached out for collecting the primary data for the pilot study.

As the research study is based on quantitative analysis of the research hypothesis, primary data will be collected through a pilot survey. A survey questionnaire will be prepared with 8 close ended questions and replicable scales for the answers. It will have two sections, demographic and non-demographic, which will help to understand the pattern of consumer behavior and certain attributes that influence their taste and preferences. The survey will be conducted in person and the participants will have the freedom of voluntary participation. No personal data of the customers will be collected except for their age, gender and nationality. 3 people will go to 3 different stores of 7-Eleven and conduct the survey personally.

Authenticity of the data is a major concern in this type of research. The reliability of the data cannot be tested using Cronbach’s Alpha, as the sample size is quite small and number of variables is less. The accuracy of the data cannot be guaranteed. Other than that, validity of the primary data cannot also be evaluated as secondary data collection and analysis will not be performed.

Descriptive research design will be applied for the research brief to get an idea about people’s perception about the performance of the 7-Eleven in Australia. The responses will be presented through charts and graphs to get the findings. Interpretivism method of analysis or explanatory analysis process will be applied to explain the findings from the primary data.

Reporting medium will be MS Word. The findings will be summarized in a MS Word file in a report format.

The responses for the survey are presented below.

The above three questions collected information on demographic factors. It has been found from the responses that majority of the survey participants are female (56.7%) and 30% belong to the age group of 25 to 30 years and 31 to 40 years. Regarding the nationality, it is found that majority of the participants (33.3%) have marked themselves as immigrants in the country, and 30% are permanent residents, followed by 23.3% temporary residents and 13.3% tourists. Thus, the sample size consists of mixed classes of the society.

It is seen that primary reason for visiting the convenience store are the convenient location and wide range of products. Only 8 people said that they influenced by the advertisements of 7-Eleven.

Regarding the fulfillment of needs and customer’s preference for going back to 7-Eleven stores, it is observed that majority of the people answered neutral, followed by people who agreed.

The survey responses revealed that people are aware of 7-Eleven due to the reason that it has opened a large number of stores in and around the cities and thus, it is visible more than the competitor stores. It is followed by word-of-mouth publicity by the fellow customers, and billboards, hoardings on the highways and fliers, which make people aware about the presence of the 7-Eleven stores.

40% respondents feel likely and 36.7% feel highly likely that 7-Eleven should improve its marketing activities to capture the attention of a larger target market.

From the above descriptive study regarding the consumers preferences about 7-Eleven stores in Australia, it is found that the company does not focus much on promotional activities. They have put up few billboards and hoardings in the city and around the highway and have opened many stores to attract the customers, but they do not invest much on media advertisements.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that although 7-Eleven is one of the largest convenience chain stores in Australia, with the increasing competition in the industry, the company might face some revenue loss. It largely depends on the number of stores, billboard ads near the highways and word-of-mouth publicity; however, in the age of advanced technology, this is not enough and it should focus on improving its marketing activities to capture a larger target market.

To sustain in the competitive environment, 7-Eleven must try to invest in more innovative marketing activities. Following are some recommendations for the company.

• 7-Eleven should make strategies and campaigns for media advertisements. That includes print, digital and social media. This would increase brand awareness among people of all ages.
• It should participate and sponsor various events, such as, school and college games, social events, fairs etc. to increase brand awareness.
• During the festive season, it should introduce limited version products, such as, special beverages, special packaged delis etc. This is helpful in attracting young customers.

References

7eleven.com.au. (2018). 7-Eleven our story. Retrieved from https://epublishbyus.com/ebook/10046805/7EL1705_CorpBroch_237x180_V5_FA_HR_final_x.pdf

7eleven.com.au. (2018). About Us. Retrieved from https://www.7eleven.com.au/about-us

Ausfoodnews.com.au. (2012). Convenience stores in Australia, a revolution and more evolution. Australian Food News. Retrieved from https://www.ausfoodnews.com.au/2012/10/30/convenience-stores-in-australia-a-revolution-and-more-evolution.html

Dobson, C., Woller-Skar, M. M., & Green, J. (2017). An inquiry-based activity to show the importance of sample size and random sampling. Science Scope, 40(8), 76.

Ibisworld.com.au. (2018). 7-Eleven Stores Pty Ltd. Retrieved from https://www.ibisworld.com.au/australian-company-research-reports/retail-trade/7-eleven-stores-pty-ltd-company.html

Taylor, S. J., Bogdan, R., & DeVault, M. (2015). Introduction to qualitative research methods: A guidebook and resource. John Wiley & Sons.