Using The Five-Step Marketing Research Process For Nonprofit Charity Membership Essay.

The purpose of this assignment is to place students in the active role of a marketing manager with a problem threatening the organization's survival. Students will respond to a specific scenario that requires them to address the concepts both critically and creatively to solve the scenario's dilemma. 

You are the marketing manager for a local nonprofit charity whose funding is based on membership fees. You've noticed a severe drop in new memberships and a decline in repeat memberships, which is threatening your organization's ability to survive and grow. You have decided to implement the Five-Step Marketing Research Process to help understand the problem and create solution strategies to implement. 

Create : Presentation with speaker's notes on the Five-Step Marketing Research Approach detailing how you will use each step to solve the membership issue the local nonprofit charity is facing.

• Define the Five-Step Marketing Research Approach and discuss the importance of research in marketing. 
• Describe each step of the Marketing Research Approach (one slide for each step) in detail including its goal, and create an example aligned to the scenario above to illustrate how that stage would be implemented toward the problem's solution.
• Define the two types of research data this process gathers and their pros and cons. Share examples of each type that would be useful in solving the scenario.
• Compare and contrast the Five-Step Process with two alternative methods for conducting marketing research.  What are the pros and cons of each?
• Define what it means to differentiate a service and provide an example to illustrate how the local nonprofit charity in the scenario can use the strategy to help increase target market interest.
• Explain how differentiation will help position the organization.

The Five-Step Market Research Process

• As the marketing manager for a local non profit charity, the drop in the new memberships have been addressed through the implementation of Five- Step Marketing Research Process.

As the marketing manager for a local nonprofit charity, the decline in repeated memberships and drop in new memberships that are threatening the survival and growth of the organization are addressed through the implementation of the Five- Step Marketing Research Process. This process can assist in better understanding of the problem and creation of solution strategies.   

Five-step market research approach follows five steps for completing the research:

• Define the Problem
• Develop the Research Plan
• Gathering Problem Specific Data
• Interpretation of Data and Report Findings
• Taking Actions and Solving Problems

• Identification of problems and opportunities in the market
• Formulating market strategies
• Determining needs and wants of the customers
• Effective communication mix
• Improving selling activities

Five-step market research approach uses five step for finding the effective solution of the problem.  The steps include defining the problem, developing research plan, gathering problem-specific data, interpreting data and report findings and taking actions. This research plays an important role as it offers easy identification of problems and opportunities in the market through which the relevant strategies can be formulated.

• The goal of this step is to prevent the wastage of resources, time and effort on research job on wrong problem. Therefore, it aims at determining the problem to be addressed.
• In the given scenario, the problem is the reduced number of new and repeated memberships which is required to be addressed.

‘Defining the problem’ is the first stage in the Five- Step Market Research Process. The rest of the stages of the process is dependent on this stage. This step assists in the determination of the problem (Corbin, Strauss & Strauss, 2014). This problem will act as the basis on which the entire research process will be based. For example, in the given scenario, the problem is the reduced number of memberships. The implementation of this stage will now base the entire research process on his problem.         

• The goal of this stage is formulating and designing of a research plan along with determining the type of research to be conducted and the sources to be used.
• In the given scenario, the implementation this stage will require creation of the research plan which includes the use of techniques like conducting surveys, interviewing customers, researching online, etc.

Developing the research plan constitutes the second stage of the Five- Step Market Research Process. It will require the researcher to specify the limitations on the market research activity. Moreover, it needs to make identification of the data required for marketing actions along with the determination of the manner of collection of data (White, 2017). In the given scenario, the research plan will be based on the technique of interviewing of customers and prospects regarding why they are less willing to take membership of this nonprofit charity. It is expected that best feedback will be received by using this tactic in the given scenario.

Step 1: Defining the Problem

• The goal of this stage is the collection of unbiased and valid data by using the appropriate techniques.
• In the given scenario, this stage will help in deriving the information regarding why the members are not interested in repeated membership and why the new memberships are declining.

This is the third stage of the Five- Step Market Research Process. This step requires the collection of relevant data by making the use of rational information marketing decision (Boddy, 2016). In this scenario, primary data will be collected from the current and prospective members through interviews regarding what they feel being a member of the organization and what prompts them to switch to other organization. This will involve both qualitative and quantitative research along with needed observations. This will assist in deriving information from the members regarding why they are not interested in applying for repeated memberships.     

• The goal of this stage is to analyze the gathered data for the purpose of determining what it means so that relevant actions can be taken.
• In the given scenario, interpretation of data will be based on the interviews conducted of the prospective and current members and findings will be presented.

This is the fourth stage in the process which requires analysis of the data to present the findings. This scenario requires the analysis of the primary data i.e. the interviews conducted for determining the root cause of the problem.  This stage will help in taking corrective actions for increasing the number of memberships.   

In the given scenario, interpretation of data will be based on the interviews conducted of the prospective and current members and findings will be presented.  

• The goal of this stage is to present the findings and taking the required actions.
• In the given scenario, the implementation of this stage will require adoption of differentiation strategy for defeating the comparable organizations and increasing the number of memberships.

This stage is the last stage of the process and requires presenting the findings and taking necessary actions. In the given scenario, actions include the adoption of differentiation strategy so that the members can clearly recognize why the services of this organization is better than the other comparable organization. When the members will be able to see the benefits, they will definitely opt for repeated membership.  

• The two types of Research data gathered by this process is qualitative and quantitative data.

The two types of research data gathered in this process are qualitative data and quantitative data. Qualitative data can be defined as the data concerned with descriptions which can be acquired through observations but cannot be computed. This type of data is advantageous as it is good for exploratory purposes and is flexible. However, it suffers from data rigidity and personal subjectivity. On the other hand, quantitative data focuses on mathematical calculations and numbers and can be computed an calculated. The method is quick and cost- effective but does not provide specific details and offers limited ability to probe answers (Silverman, 2016).

Step 2: Developing the Research Plan

In the given scenario, qualitative data will offer reasons and facts regarding the decline in memberships while quantitative data will provide the numbers i.e. the number of individuals having a particular opinion.      

The alternative methods are observation and surveys.

• Observation- five step process sometimes does not portray the actual behavior of people. Observation may offer more accurate picture of the pattern and trend to be followed by the members.

• Surveys- surveys can assist in analyzing the sample group that represents all the members. surveys can be in- person surveys, telephonic surveys or mail surveys. More reliable results are obtained when the sample is larger.

There are some alternative methods also which can be used in place of the five step market research process. The alternative methods are observation and surveys. When compared with the five step process, these methods also serve the same purpose as done by the five step process. On the other hand, there are some dissimilarities such as providing more accurate results in less costs. However, both the methods have its own pros and cons. Observation method is not possible in all the cases but offers more accurate results. Survey method is less expensive but does not assist in concluding the actual behavior (Bailey, 2014). 

• Service differentiation can be defined as the designing and delivery of service to have valuable and unique characteristics in relation to the other available services in the market.

Non Profit Charity can increase the interest of the target market by

• appealing to the emotions
• Being a thought leader
• Personalizing the organization
• Differentiating itself

Service differentiation can be defined as the designing and delivery of service to have valuable and unique characteristics in relation to the other available services in the market (Sekaran & Bougie, 2016).

In the given scenario, the local non profit charity can easily increase the interest of the target market by following the strategies mentioned below-

• Appealing to the emotions- emotions drive supporters. In this case, sympathy will act as the most important driver.
• Being a thought leader- positioning the non profit charity as innovative and forward-thinking organization will attract the target market.
• Personalizing the Organization- personalization can give rise to peer-to-peer fundraising which is beneficial for this charity.
• Differentiating Itself- members have a number of choices in the organizations it can support. Therefore, differentiation is necessary with regard to the method, goal and the place of work.

• Distinguish it from comparable organizations
• Provision of more effective and efficient services
• Creation of a strong organization
• Attraction to prospective members

Differentiation will play a great role in the positioning of the organization. Differentiation will easily distinguish the organization from the other comparable organization and will offer a competitive advantage. When the organization will be able to attract the target market through its characteristics, it will further be capable of providing more effective and efficient services to the members. When the services to the members will be effective, a strong organization will be created that will be capable of attracting the prospective members.            

Conclusion

• Therefore, it can be concluded that five- step market research process will help in analyzing the problem of reduced memberships and taking the required action for addressing it.
• Differentiation of service will assist in distinguishing it from other comparable organizations.

References

Corbin, J., Strauss, A., & Strauss, A. L. (2014). Basics of qualitative research. sage.

Sekaran, U., & Bougie, R. (2016). Research methods for business: A skill building approach. John Wiley & Sons.

Silverman, D. (2016). Qualitative research. Sage.

White, P. (2017). Developing research questions. Macmillan International Higher Education.

Bailey, L. F. (2014). The origin and success of qualitative research. International Journal of Market Research, 56(2), 167-184.

Boddy, C. R. (2016). Sample size for qualitative research. Qualitative Market Research: An International Journal, 19(4), 426-432.