UL Marketing Manager Problems Facing Mark & Spencer Company PPT The marketing manager for a clothing retailer requires information on its brand image to he

UL Marketing Manager Problems Facing Mark & Spencer Company PPT The marketing manager for a clothing retailer requires information on its brand image to help in developing her promotional strategy for the coming year. Undertake both qualitative and quantitative data collection from both customers and non-customers of the brand to provide the retailer with information and recommendations.

You may select one of the following:
Mark & Spencer
Guess
Gap
Abercrombie & Fitch

*The two examples group project rather than individual projects and so are more lengthy than what is required in this course. However, they will provide a good guide as to the various sections of a report.

**Individual research report examples are also provided MARKET RESEARCH DIVISON OF
ROYAL HOLLOWAY, UNIVERSITY OF LONDON
A MARKETING RESEARCH STUDY OF MARKET
POTENTIALITY FOR COSMETIC SURGERY IN
SINGAPORE CONTEXT
Prepared for
Prepared by
January, 2015
MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
TABLE OF CONTENT
LISTS
ILLUSTRATIONS………………..……………………….…………
OF
4
EXECUTIVE
SUMMARY…………………………………………..……………
5
1.0
INTRODUCTION……………………………………………………….……
6
1.1
Background
to
Problem…………………………………….….……….
the
6
1.2
Statement
of
Problem……………………………………….………….
the
7
1.3
Statement
of
Objectives…………………………………………
Research
8
1.4
Hypotheses………………………………………………………
Research
8
2.0
APPROACHES
DESIGN………….………….
TO
PROBLEM
&
2.1
Design……………………………………………………….……
RESEARCH
9
Research
9
2.2
Source
of
Type………………………………………….……..
Information
1
0
3.0
SECONDARY
ANALYSIS…………………..…………………….
DATA
1
0
Secondary
1
0
3.1
Data…………………………………………………….………..
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
3.2
Conclusion
on
Data……………………………………………
Secondary
1
3
FOCUS
1
4
COLLECTION
1
5
of
1
5
5.2
PreTesting………………………………………………………..………….
1
6
5.3
Sampling
Size
Method…………………………………………..…….…
1
7
4.0
GROUP…………………………………………………………….
5.0
DATA
METHOD…………………………………………..
5.1
Development
Questionnaire……………………………………….…….
&
5.4
Fieldwork…………………………………………………………………….
1
8
5.5
Methods
to
Method………………………………
Non-sampling
1
8
&
1
9
Focus
1
9
the
2
0
Target
2
3
of
2
4
Marketing
2
5
Reduce
6.0
ANALYSES
FINDINGS………………………………………………….
6.1
Group…………………………………………………………………
6.2
Profile
of
Sample……………..……………………………..…….…….
6.3
Market……………………………………………………..………….
6.4
Perception
Consumers…………………………………………..…….…
6.5
Communication…….……………………………………………
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
6.6
Hypotheses….……………………………………………………..…………
2
8
7.0
LIMITATIONS…………………………….………………………………….
3
1
8.0
CONCLUSION………….………………….……………..…………………
3
2
9.0
RECOMMENDATIONS……………………………………………………..
3
3
REFERENCES……………………………..………………………………….
..
3
5
APPENDIXES……………………………………………..……………………
.
3
7
LISTS OF ILLUSTRATIONS
Figure 1 Samples Representative By Gender and
Age……………………
20
Figure 2 Samples Representative By Gender and
Income………………..
Figure 3 Ways Of Learning More On Cosmetic
Surgery………….………..
22
4
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
Figure 4 Who To Consult Before Cosmetic
Surgery………………………..
27
Table1 Key Vocabularies Identified from Focus
Group …………………….
19
Table 2 Age & Tendency Of Undergoing Cosmetic
Surgery………………
23
Table 3 Physical Appearance & Acceptance for Cosmetic
Surgery………
24
Table 4 Perceive Importance Level Of Choosing Cosmetic Surgery
Clinic
25
Table 5 Correlation Of Gender & Desire For Cosmetic
Surgery…………..
Table 6 Correlation Of ‘Before & After’ With Desire For Cosmetic
Surgery…….
29
5
30
MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
EXECUTIVE SUMMARY
With the rising global demand of cosmetic surgery, Grand Clinic (client), Korea’s
most established cosmetic organization, aims to expand its operation into South
East Asia. Singapore consequently becomes Grand Clinic’s pioneering-plan. A
market study was therefore implemented on the population of Singapore to
evaluate its market potentiality. This report attempts to present findings which
are anchored upon three primary objectives; specific demographic of
consumers, perceptions, and most suited marketing communication.
The
process constitutes both exploratory and descriptive researches that endorsed
analyses from secondary data, focus group and primary data in sequential order.
These collected data were subsequently cross-referred for greater validation to
our conclusion and recommendations.
Essentially, data from the primary collection were computed into SPSS where a
selection of tests such as Independent Sample, Paired Sample, Correlations
and other relevant tests were conducted and presented in the form of charts
and tables. Following that, results were interpreted by our team to address
various initial assumptions (hypotheses) so as to attempt some closures. All in
all, we firmly conclude that Singapore does remain lucrative for Grand Clinic’s
expansion where specific target market and marketing communications have
been identified and addressed in the final section.
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
1.0 INTRODUCTION
1.1 Background to the Problem
Cosmetic Surgery Industry
In recent decades, million across the globe have gone under the knife to
enhance their appearances where demand for cosmetic surgery has
tremendously risen (Chang & Thompson, 2014). With the word ‘Cosmetic’ or
‘Plastic Surgery’ been widely articulated on the lip of many, the remunerative
business of cosmetic surgery cannot no longer be taken lightly, peculiarly on
national scale (Olen Martin, 2012). We have thus; make a broad assumption
that Singapore is potentially tracking a similar trail, where local demand and
factors are sufficient to fuel the expansion of cosmetic surgery industry. Our
research study seeks to unveil the market potentiality for cosmetic surgery in
this nation where recommendations on certain touch points, our client – Grand
Clinic – will have to consider before making their way into Singapore.
Singapore
Singapore, spanning across 720-kilometer square, is a small nation located at
the southern end of Malay Peninsula. An estimated population of 5.5 million
people with annual tourism flows of nearly 11 million visitors (World Statistics,
2014). Geographically, Singapore is strategically located in the central of many
Asian nations; peculiarly South-East Asia (see Appendix. 1) where regional
population has rose to near 618 million people in 2014 (World Statistics, 2014).
7
MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
Singapore is thus considerably interesting due to its level of demand, location,
demographics, tourism and state’s obsession in transforming the nation into
industrial hubs. Considering the above factors, the idea of expanding cosmetic
surgery supply (by Grand Clinic) at this stage does remain lucrative.
Nevertheless, our team believes that presently, there is inadequate information
available in the market to explicitly conclude the decision of Grand Clinic
Grand Clinic
Grand Clinic, established in 2004, has been operating across Gangnam and
Busan Center. Presently, the organization is the biggest in Korea, covering over
4300 meter squares; a 21-stories building built with four respective centers Main Surgery, Facial-Contouring, Body-Line and Dermatology (Grand Clinic,
2014).
They lay priorities on research, welfare, charity and customer-based
management, equipping with excellent facilities and technologies that offer a
wide-range of surgeries performed by reputable medical specialists. Grand
Clinic’s primary objective has always been to be the world’s No.1 and thus, they
have been proactively seeking for opportunities to expand current operations
towards regional scale.
1.2 Statement of the Problem
As the market in South Korea is gradually saturating while demand from other
parts of the world remaining highly lucrative, oversea expansion inevitably
becomes one of the best options for Grand Clinic to embark upon. Lately,
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
decisions from top management (Grand Clinic) have considered Singapore to
be the jumping board for South-east Asia.
Our market research study primarily focuses on cosmetic surgery industry as a
whole, considering both simple and complex surgery procedures, within the
national perimeter of Singapore. In order to comprehend deeper about
Singapore’s market potentiality, investigations will be conducted on the basics
of acceptance, perception, risk, level of investment and demographic groups.
1.3 Statement of Research Objectives
1)
To conclude the specific demographics of potential consumers.
2)
To investigate beauty perception & acceptance level of cosmetic surgery.
3)
To investigate the most suitable market communication for Grand Clinic.
1.4 Research Hypothesis
Hypothesis (1)
Null: There is a relationship between gender and desirability for cosmetic
surgery.
Alternative: There is no relationship between gender and desirability for
cosmetic surgery
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
Hypothesis (2)
Null: There is a relationship between ‘Before & After image’ advertising and
desirability for cosmetic surgery.
Alternative: There is no relationship between ‘Before & After image’
advertising and desirability for cosmetic surgery.
2.0 APPROACHES TO PROBLEM & RESEARCH DESIGN
2.1 Research Design
In response to research design, our team engaged both exploratory and
descriptive research sequentially (Burns & Bush, 2014).
The former, entailing
an unstructured and informal methodology, allows greater background insights
to our research problems and hypotheses (Kolter et al, 2013). The methodology
consists of secondary data analysis, followed by focus group as shown in later
sections. Descriptive research will thereafter be implemented to represent our
findings towards a larger population. A cross-sectional study, survey
questionnaire, was thus conducted in December 2014 to provide our research
‘an accurate snapshot’ of Singapore’s current market (Burns & Bush, 2014, p.
103). Regardless of the sequential order, the choice of research design does
present high-interdependency; where findings from secondary data analysis,
focus group and survey questionnaire can be made into comparison for greater
validation towards our recommendation (Patton, 1990).
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
2.2 Source of Information Type
The source of our analysis mainly comes from primary and secondary sources.
As a highly lucrative industry, cosmetic industry has drawn considerable large
amount of contemporary industrial and academic studies. Our team will
therefore be utilizing extensively on these studies as secondary research.
Nevertheless, basing on this collected information has proven insufficient to
justify our findings to Grand Clinic. Thus, we would be concentrating heavily on
questionnaire survey as primary research. Above all, analyses from our focus
group will also be taken into consideration for more precisions.
3.0 SECONDARY DATA ANALYSIS
3.1 Secondary Data
Global Demand
As the introductory section identifies a rising trend in global demand, cosmetic
surgery is no longer been treated as shameful act or ignominy in our
contemporary world (Thorpe, et al., 2004). Empirical evidences have shown, for
instance by American Society of Plastic Surgeons (ASPS, 2010), surgeries in
2009 for U.S. market alone has increased by 69% as compared to 2000,
accounting up to 12.5 million procedures. Furthermore, nations like Taiwan, has
11
MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
seen its cosmetic procedures surpassing millions in 2001 (Cullen, 2002). The
prototypal cosmetic nation, South Korea, reveals that nearly half of its women
population aging 18 and above has conducted cosmetic surgery at least once
in their lifetime (Chosunilbo, 2007). A study on 810 Koreans (Um, 2007) further
supports such astounding claim with 70% responding their willingness towards
cosmetic surgery. This high demand consequently factored the rise of cosmetic
surgery industry where hundreds of thousands from Asia began to flood into
Seoul for surgeries.
Local Demand
Within the context of Singapore, recent years have witnessed an increase rate
of 30 percent of the population age below 21 becoming more acceptance and
aware of cosmetic surgery (Xiong, 2011). Fully-sponsored influential individuals
such as Bloggers & Celebrities who have undergone cosmetic procedures have
openly shared their experiences. For instances, famous local blogger like
Tammy Tay and singer, Daryl Yow have shared their stories virally across social
media, influencing numerous Singaporeans to follow suit (Lee, 2013). A recent
study by Tee (2011) identifies that more career-minded Singaporeans with highdisposable income began to reckon the importance of appearance, resulting a
70 percent increase in aesthetic beauty industry. In a report by RNCOS,
business consulting firm, found out that Singaporeans have increasing demand
for cosmetic products, equally from both male and female consumers.
Essentially, the male-sector is expecting an annual growth rate of 4 percent from
2013 to 2017 (Rncos, 2012). In order to cater such niches, more men’s
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
grooming products have consequently been made available in today’s market
(International Business Publications, 2009).
Marketing Communication
As mentioned earlier on, one of the market research’s key purposes was to
identify a suitable set of marketing communications to our client. Modes of
marketing communication for cosmetic surgery essentially became pertinent to
our collection of secondary data. With technology becoming more advanced,
today’s consumers are unconsciously being exposed to infinite amount of
information, peculiarly online platforms. Social-media Celebrities and bloggers
inescapably became the main contributors in pressuring the ideal perspective
of beauty, impacting consumers to feel more uncomfortable in their own skin
and to perceive that not only facial symmetry is essentially, so does body
symmetry to signal mate quality (Rhodes et al, 1998). Consequently, these led
to many to perceive inner and outer beauty as equally important.
In reference to the giants of cosmetic surgery, our secondary findings
interestingly unveil that Korean surgeons practically built a ‘Brand Museum’ to
better communicate with potential consumers. These museums, characterized
with features and ambience, allow their consumers to learn more about
cosmetic surgery directly and physically. Apart from that, traditional medium like
TV advertisements play a big role in every industry of Korea where the Koreans
primarily communicate with consumers about their cosmetic brands through TV
13
MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
advertising. TV programs like “LET ME IN” features and captures the change
of a person from its original self into a whole new person. The cost of surgery
will be fully bared by the program company which in return the company got to
widely advertise the expertise of their surgeons, providing both consumer
knowledge and brand awareness. This form of advertising has proven effective
where consumers are constantly exposed to selective type of information
required. This finding, in our assumption, concludes a most feasible method that
prevents consumer sensory overload.
3.2 Conclusion on Secondary Data
A quick glance on the above data enables our team to conclude on several
assumptions. First, the increasing global demand, well-supported by statistical
evidence, justifies the potentiality of today’s cosmetic surgery business and that
the shift of universal perceptions towards such act has been accounted for, also,
in the perimeter of Singapore. Second, the expected rise of male consumption
in Singapore’s cosmetic industry has reaffirmed the decision of ensuring equal
gender-distribution in our (quota) sampling. Third, in the search for suitable
marketing communication, we have seen interesting forms of advertising
methods endorsed by the Koreans, thus providing us an alternate source for
deeper investigation. Last, scoping back into the context of Singapore, we
realized that only minute research studies have being conducted despite the
rising demand towards local industries. All in all, our findings from secondary
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
data concludes that although numerous contemporary studies were been made
available (more towards the Americans & Koreans), it remains clear that a focus
group on local context should be implemented before diving deeper into our
primary research.
4.0 FOCUS GROUP
As the analyses from the above unveils little information on Singapore’s industry,
our team turned towards focus group as an alternative to conduct our
exploratory research (Burns & Bush, 2014). Essentially, the 70-minutes open
discussion comprised a group size of six participants; led by a moderator that
seeks to generate maximum insights pertaining to our research problem
(Greenbaum, 1988). The moderator (MR) was a military officer (Lieutenant) of
the Singapore Army. Being the conducting officer to numerous military meetings,
he is liable for directing the discussion and to portray professionalism
throughout the process. Among the six participants, three were local females
(A, B and C) studying at Kaplan Singapore whom we initially presumed to be
the potential consumers for cosmetic surgery due to gender and age
demographics. The remaining three were an early-twenties male (D) who is
currently serving his term in National Service, a middle-aged foreign male (E)
from Indonesia who has lately moved to Singapore under work permit, and a
middle-aged, female (F) from A&A Wellness Spa, a beauty therapist who has
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
been in the field for more than a decade. In view of time constraint, the idealistic
number of (min. two) sessions was reduced to a one-off session (Patton, 1990).
A transcript from the discussion illustrated in Appendix 2, was keyed via the
playbacks of an audiocassette.
5.0 DATA COLLECTION METHOD
5.1 Development of Questionnaire
Prior to the development, our team adhered several “dos” and don’t” in the
theoretical work of Burns & Bush (2014). The questionnaire was formulated
grammatically-simple and clear, avoiding all leading and double barrelled
scenarios. Essentially the questionnaire hovers over structured, multi-choice
and dichotomous questions.
The questionnaire was broken down into four
sections. The initial section consists of warm-up questions to obtain general
opinion. Following that, specific questions on perceptions, acceptance and
communication were touched upon. The final section consists of the
demographic of our respondents for greater understanding to research objective
(3).The sequencing of questions fundamentally serves as a funnel that filters
relevant information to match our research objective (Jeanne, 2011). Question
1 became critical in acting as an indicator to identify relevant respondent; where
a ‘No’ response will be immediately excluded from the studies. The types of
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MAREKT RESEARCH STUDY ON COSMETIC SURGERY
measures endorsed comprises of nominal, ordinal and ratio where the former
allows the assignment of subjects to given cate…
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