Assignment (Written Responses) Student Instructions

Assignment (Written Responses) Student Instructions

BSBMKG506 Plan market research

Student Name: Student ID:

Group: Date:

Type of Assessment

This summative assessment will enable your Assessor to make a judgement of competency based on the submission of your completed assignments against the requirements of this unit of competency.

Assessor Instructions

The Assessment Benchmark developed for each unit of competency is the evidence criteria used to judge the quality of performance (i.e. the assessment decision-making rules). Assessors must use these benchmarks to make judgement on whether competency has been achieved and to determine if the participant has performed to the standard expected to meet unit requirement and learning outcomes. Competency results for each unit are recorded in the Record of Assessment Form.

Reasonable Adjustment

Careers Australia will allow flexibility in relation to the way in which each unit is delivered and assessed based on the student’s requirement. The following are the reasonable adjustments for this unit:

Reasonable Adjustment for this unit / College Based / On Line Delivery
assistance of a Learning Support Teacher for LLN issues / Yes / Yes
modifications to physical environment, eg wheelchair access / Yes / Yes
changes to course design, eg instead of written assessment task – change to verbal questioning & assessor to write the answers / Yes / Not Applicable

Assessment Coding

Assessment of this program of study is based on competency based principles.

S = Satisfactory

NS = Not Satisfactory

Students who fail to perform satisfactorily for the assessment in the prescribed date may be assessed as ‘not satisfactory’. You are required to be assessed as ‘Satisfactory’ on completion of Assessments assigned by your assessor for this unit of competency.

Re-assessment

Any re-assessment is conducted as soon as practicable after you have been informed of the requirement to be re-assessed and have been given the opportunity to be re-trained and assimilate the training. You are re-assessed in only the areas assessed NS. It is at the assessor/s discretion to re-assess the entire assessment should it be demonstrated an overall understanding of this unit has not been achieved. Students that are assessed “satisfactory” after re-assessment of areas deemed NS will achieve competency for this assignment.

I acknowledge the assessment process has been explained and agree to undertake assessment. I am aware of Careers Australia’s appeals process, should the need arise. I also understand that I must be assessed as ‘satisfactory’ in all parts of the assessment to gain a competent result for this unit of competency. I declare that the work contained in this assessment is my own, except where acknowledgement of sources is made. I understand that a person found responsible for academic misconduct will be subject to disciplinary action (refer to student handbook).
Student Signature: ______/ Date: ______
Assessor use only
Assessor Comment/Feedback: ______
______
______
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Assessor Name: ______Assessor Signature: ______
Date: ______Result: Satisfactory/Not Satisfactory

Office use only:

Results entered by: / Date: / Skills Centre:

Students must complete all tasks as outlined in the following pages.

Hints: - The following hints will assist when preparing reports for submission
Report format:
Executive summary
An executive summary is a very useful tool in communicating your information to busy people. It is essentially a short summary (often no more than a page) of the report objectives, findings, and conclusions.
Contents
Any report over three pages in length should have a list of contents. A list of contents not only helps people find their way around the report but it also gives an indication of what is in the report and the structure.
Introduction
The introduction should set the scene for the report by concisely describing the reason for the report and the background or history relevant to the report.
Body
The body should address the main information including:
• objectives of the review;
• how the review was conducted, who was consulted, etc; and
• results of the review and key issues identified.
Summary/Conclusions/Recommendations
Your conclusions should be clearly justified with reference to the results of the review. Your recommendations should be made twice, briefly in the opening summary or Executive Summary and then in more detail in the recommendations section.
Useful links to assist with assigned tasks.

This information is to be handed to each student to outline the assessment requirements.

Assessment due date: This will be aligned to Session Plan

Instructions

Please complete the following tasks using either your organisation or the scenario provided below. Note: If you use your own organisation, you will need to identify an opportunity for expansion and provide details.

Scenario

You are to assume to role of Jon Sales, Head of Marketing of CA City Department Store. You have been tasked with identifying opportunities for business expansion. You have heard from a few customers that a ‘specialty organic foods’ or delicatessen department would be appreciated. Before putting together a proposal for expansion, you will need to conduct market research.

Whilst you have some marketing knowledge, you will need advice and support from personnel within the business. Richard Burton, the General Manager for Marketing, has informed you that he is more than happy to help and can provide you with his assistant whenever you need. Once you have completed your plan, you will need final approval from Edward Shands and Richard Burton.

Additional documents and resources have been provided for you throughout this assignment. To ensure you complete the tasks correctly, you will need to make sure that you review any documents provided prior to completing tasks.

Throughout this assignment, document templates have been embedded to help structure your responses and save you time developing documents. You may choose to save your work within the embedded document, or save externally and upload separately. If you choose to save in the embedded files and upload only the assignment, you will need to check you have saved your work correctly with appropriate names. It is good practice to save a backup copy.

Question One

In order to begin market research, you need to get stakeholders on board. It is important for personnel in the business to understand why market research matters.

1a Review the organisational charts provided in Appendix A. Identify a minimum of three personnel you will need to consult with.

1.  .

2.  .

3. 

1b Briefly explain how will you convince your selected personnel that market research is important. At a minimum, your explanation should include what is involved with marketing research and how market research can help.

Explain why market research is important? Page 5,6 & 7 of ebook can help with this.

1c Explain how you plan to communicate with them and why you have chosen that communication method.

Stakeholder / Method of communication?
(Can be more than one) / Why is this method the best?
1.
2.
3.

Question Two

To support your case and influence your identified personnel, it is important that market research needs are identified and documented clearly.

You have had a meeting with the marketing team to discuss your ideas for expansion. The information in the table below has been provided to you by a marketing assistant. Review the proposed information, and using the table below, document changes you may make. Make notes to explain your proposed changes.

Changes required – All need changing. None of them are specific enough.

Notes – list what information you need to know.

Remember to look in the scope to help with this.

Information Provided / Changes required / Notes
Objective / To discover the popularity of specialty foods / Needs changing. This objective is not specific / I would still need to know:
·  What do we really want to know from our customers?
·  What specialty foods are popular?
·  Would they buy them?
·  How much would they buy?
·  What would they pay?
·  Demographic information?
Scope / Survey customers asking if they’d buy specialty foods
Stakeholders / CEO, Customer Service Personnel, Customers
Communication / ·  Surveys for customers
·  Weekly email to internal stakeholders
Review / Only CEO

Question Three

To determine research needs, it is important to analyse enterprise planning and performance documentation. Using the table below, explain why each of the documents listed are important when determining research needs. You may use examples within your explanation.

Hint: you can access the CA City Retail Group Operational Plan and identify existing objectives for this project.

You can use Control F in the ebook or google it. Just use your own words.

Documentation / Importance /
Organisational plans
Correspondence (emails. letters of support, letters of complaint, other information shared with the organisation that may inform your choices)
Financial reports
Information about sales (both profitability and the sales force)
Internal reports (do any of your other stores currently have the products you are looking to introduce)

Question Four

To adequately determine your market research needs, you will need to conduct preliminary research on the marketing mix, your competitors and your consumers. Using the table below, suggest three examples of what you would need to measure for each research area.

Research Area / Suggested measures /
Research on competition / 1.
2.
3.
Research on consumers / 1.
2.
3.
Research on place (location) / 1.
2.
3.
Research on pricing / 1.
2.
3.
Research on products and services / 1.
2.
3.
Research on promotion (promoting the product/service) / 1.
2.
3.

Question Five

Once preliminary research has been conducted, you will have a better understanding of how your research will benefit the organisation and how your performance (past, present and organisational objectives for the future) will impact on the research.

5a Based on what you think the market research needs are, use the table below to draft two research objectives. Remember to ensure that your objectives align with organisational requirements. Section 2 ebook

Draft Objectives
1
2

5b Part of ensuring that you are on the right track is to test various hypotheses. With the help of Richard, you have developed the hypothesis ‘The CA City Department Store customers need a delicatessen’. Using the table below, outline the seven (7) steps you would take to test this hypothesis. Control F ebook will cover this

Steps to test a hypothesis
1
2
3
4
5
6
7

5c Using the table below, explain how each of the key provisions of legislation listed could impact your objectives and business operations. An example has been provided for you below. Ebook or google – try to relate it to market research

Legislation / Explanation
Anti-discrimination legislation and principles of equal opportunity, equity and diversity / It is unlawful to discriminate against any person. It will be important to ensure that objectives do not beach discrimination laws otherwise this will impact business operations.
Ethical principles
Privacy laws
Australian Consumer Law

Question Six

You have received an e-mail from Edward Shands (see Appendix B). As per Edward’s request, you will need to develop a market research plan. To help structure your response, a template has been provided for you below. If you decide to use your own template, your market research plan must include the following: The Project Plan template must be completed. The Project scope will help with this along with the ebook.

·  Market research plan approval signatures

·  Business need

·  Marketing plan overview

·  Critical assumptions

·  Deliverables

·  Objectives

·  Market research plans

·  Work breakdown structure

·  Timelines

·  Budget

·  Control plan

·  Communications plan

Question Seven

7a Now that you have completed your market research plan, you will need to send the draft back to Edward to review. Using the template below, write an e-mail to Edward asking for feedback on your market research plan. I am looking for formal wording and the word feedback in this email.

7b Edward has reviewed your marketing research plan and has asked you a couple of questions regarding the communication strategy. He feels that the current communication strategy in your market research plan doesn’t clearly explain what communications are required. He has suggested that you complete a communication matrix to help ensure relevant and useful information is gathered frequently.

Using the matrix template provided below, develop a communication matrix which includes a minimum of three stakeholders. One has been completed for you as an example.

Communication Matrix
Stakeholder / Communication
Description / Frequency / Format / Owner
Name / What type of communication and reporting will this stakeholder received? / How often? / In what format? Report sent by email? Or presentation? / Who sends?
Accounts personnel / Project status updates / Monthly / email / Jon Sales
You may list more than one here

7c After your initial planning and communication, Edward has indicated that he may need to see the results of your research by the next board meeting in 10 days. If this were to happen how would this affect your market research plan? Minimum 50 words. Read through ebook but this question is asking what are the consequences of moving the time line forward? How will it affect your data?

Question 8

Edward has approved your market research plan and does not need the results in the next ten days- what a relief! With the plan now approved, you now need to begin defining your data gathering approaches. Based on your objectives, you need to select appropriate data types, sources and methods. Make your selections and use the table below and document the following:

·  Data type

·  Description of data

·  What information you require

·  Disadvantages of the method you have chosen

You will need to include a minimum of four data types. One has been done for you as an example.

Follow the example provided. Ebook section 3 will help also

Data type / Describe the data. Internal/External
Primary/Secondary
Quantities/Qualitative / What information do you need from this data to support the research objectives? / What disadvantages could this method present for you?
Industry specific data / ·  External
·  Secondary
·  Quantitative / Trend information (growth or decline) and consumer information. / May not capture all the information we need.

Question 9