Marketing Research Plan and Proposal for Sussex Boutique

Background of Sussex Boutique

Consider the problem outlined below that is presented by Sussex Boutique (fictional company) concerning their business; prepare a marketing research plan and proposal for a piece of mixed methods research, to include an element of observation research.

Your agency has been asked to prepare a proposal for the client and you have been asked by your manager at the agency to prepare an appropriate marketing research design and present your design, with reasoning, to your manager in the agency.

Sussex Boutique are a small, but growing boutique fashion chain in the South of England. They currently have 4 stores in different small and medium sized towns, including Brighton. During the 2020 pandemic they have managed to maintain some sales online and will continue to do so when the lockdowns have passed.

The management want to know how to best maintain the confidence of their customers to visit their stores during the time when social distancing still continues, they also want to know what their customers value most about the shopping experience in their stores to ensure that customers return to their stores when things return to ‘normal’; they are also considering how to make their Brighton store more of a shopping ‘destination/experience’ when this happens.

They need your agency to undertake some marketing research to help them understand how to maintain confidence under the current circumstances, and what their customers like about visiting their stores as well as what they might want that could attract customers back in the future.

The Company has indicated the research process needs to be completed within 4 months of when the contract is agreed.

Guidance

·In your presentation you need to demonstrate a suitable problem definition process and a research question that is relevant to the Company’s ‘brief’. You should also explain your selection of a suitable research approach and research design that comprises a mixed methods approach, which has both a qualitative and quantitative techniques (one of each).

·One of your data collection techniques MUST be observation.

·All research methods must adhere to relevant Covid-19 secure guidelines.

The ‘audience’ for your presentation is your manager in the research agency, therefore you do not need to explain research design to them, or how data gathering works, but you do need to demonstrate from what you have learned why each of your decisions at each stage of the research design process is relevant and appropriate.

You need to explain why your suggested research approach is suitable for Sussex Boutique problem. You will need to identify a Management Decision Problem, a Marketing Research Problem, and the basis of the information you are seeking using a systematic approach. You will justify, in your presentation, your thought process for the research design in a theory-driven and case relevant way, and outline how this would operate in an indicative timeline and with the resources available.

Your presentation choices are important for the communication of your proposal, so consider both the audience and the format of this method of communication. You need to ensure that your communication is clear and communicates logically, there are marks in the assessment criteria for both your content and the process of your presentation.

The assessment criteria, and the type of evidence that will be used to assess fulfilment of these, are outlined in the table below:

·Good understanding of the layers of decision making in research, and how each contributes to the shape of the final choice of method

·Demonstrate a critical approach in the context of the research problem and/or relate the content to relevant issues supported by the academic literature

·An appropriate research design that reflects the problem, and an appropriate selection of tools models and techniques.

·Justification of choices made both in terms of theory and practice

·Good understanding of the marketing research context and the business problem

·Coherent approach from a management perspective, appropriate for the information gathering needs

·Argument that includes acknowledgement of exception, limitation and questioning in context

·Relevant and appropriate allocation of resources

How well did the video communicate the message (20 marks available)

·Clear and well-structured presentation of information

·Good structure in the presentation to support understanding

·Clear construction in structure, argument, and communication

·Originality and technical resources

·Image and audio quality