1 Marketing Research Methods Abstract This is a marketing research proposal for Selected Inc. that aims to establish a new store in London. The city is characterized by various well-established companies who compete against each other by applying multiple communication strategies to help them attract more customers and remain competitive in the industry. Thus, the study seeks to determine marketing communication strategies that will help the company create awareness about its new store and attract more customers. Both qualitative and quantitative research designs will be adopted for the study to come up with the best recommendations for the organization.
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2 Marketing Research Methods Introduction This is a marketing research proposal for Selected, a Danish fashion brand that plans to open a new flagship store in London in spring 2021. It aims to determine an effective integrated marketing communications strategy that will help in the creation of awareness about the new store. Problem Definition The current fashion industry in London is characterized by intense competition, and companies are increasingly adopting marketing strategies that can help them become more competitive and gain a competitive edge in the market (Patten et al., 2020). The industry is highly volatile and seasonal, and each season features a new clothing style or design that has particular periods of remaining fashion lovers' top priority. Further, companies are continuously investing in a sustainable fashion as this is rapidly becoming popular among fashion consumers. Competing fashion stores have devised unlimited integrated marketing communications strategies aimed at enabling them to reach various customer segments to create awareness about their products and ensure continuous purchases. As such, success in this market is characterized by a store's ability to keep up with the fast-developing pace of creative integrated marketing communications strategies. Companies that do not develop creative integrated marketing communications strategies are most likely to fail in the market (Patten et al., 2020). Thus, it is important for Selected to consider and adopt an effective marketing communication strategy that will increase awareness about its new store and remain competitive and successful in the highly competitive fashion industry in London. Research question
3 1. Which integrated marketing communications strategies can be adopted by Selected to create awareness about its new store and encourage customer influx into the London store? 2. What is the relationship between a customer's preferred fashion store choice and his or her lifestyle, values, and motivations? Research aims and objectives 1. Identify and define marketing communication strategies that can help Selected create awareness for its new flagship store. 2. Identify marketing strategies that can help increase the traffic into the store, including new and repeat customers. 3. To establish the relationship between a customer's preferred fashion store and his or her lifestyle, values, and motivations. Literature Review Within the last two decades, the fashion industry in London and the UK as a whole has gone through significant transformations characterized by the increase in the number of stores specialized in the sale of fashion apparel (Patten et al., 2020). The fashion market consists of specialist retailers and established retailers of variety clothing. Examples of established variety clothing retailers operating in this industry include Liberty, Marks and Spencer, Primark, and New Look. On the other hand, specialist retailers in the market include Top Shop, Dorothy Perkins, Wallis, and Selfridges. Other equally dominant international chains operating in the market include Kookai, Zara International, and Gap. The intense competition present in the UK and London fashion market can significantly be attributed to the presence of such companies.
4 To ensure their survival and successful performance in the highly competitive market, the existing stores have adopted various marketing strategies that have significantly helped create awareness about their products and ensure a continuous flow of customers into the stores. According to Nagaraj (2020), dominant fashion companies in London have for many years adopted seemingly focused and more direct marketing strategies that target fashion consumers based on cultures, lifestyles, demands, and needs among potential clients. Boardman et al. (2020) point out that such strategies have been instrumental in helping the companies be successful in the market. Several studies in fashion marketing have significantly stressed the importance of integrated marketing communication to create awareness about a product and increase customer influx into the store (Henninger, Alevizou, & Oates, 2017). In integrated marketing communication, an organization carefully integrates and coordinates its various communication channels to provide a clear and consistent message to the target customers. A well-developed marketing communication plan can significantly help the company create awareness about its product offerings and increase customer visits (Šerić, 2017). Integrated marketing communication primarily aims at creating and developing brand awareness. It also influences customers' behaviors to make them purchase an organization's product (Ots & Nyilasy, 2017). Integrated marketing communication mix utilizes several innovative channels to ensure that a potential customer gets the right message at the right time. The primary integrated marketing communication tools that have been instrumental in helping companies create awareness and influence buying include advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, and exhibitions and trade shows. Mobile marketing and social media marketing are two additional communication tools that are significantly being utilized by several
5 companies today due to the increased use and penetration of the internet and smartphones among customers (Ots & Nyilasy, 2017). While advertising includes any paid form of non-personal promotion of a product by a given sponsor, personal selling refers to face-to-face interaction with the customer(s) for the purpose of creating awareness, taking orders, and answering questions about a product (Ots & Nyilasy, 2017). Sales promotions entail the provision of short-term incentives to promote the purchase or trial of a product. Similarly, public relations focus on establishing and maintaining the relationship and cooperation between a company and its stakeholders. It aims at improving corporate reputation, generating and maintain goodwill. Moreover, social media marketing refers to the process of creating awareness about a business or product through the use of social media channels (Šerić, 2017). Organizations can get massive attention and followers on social media channels, allowing them to interact with their customers as they browse the internet (Ots & Nyilasy, 2017). On the other hand, mobile marketing entails communication with the customers through a mobile device by sending a simple marketing message that allows them to visit a mobile website or introduce them to a new participation-based campaign. Mobile and social media marketing are cheaper than traditional marketing channels, and their use is significantly growing in the industry (Ots & Nyilasy, 2017). From the foregoing discussion, there exists a variety of marketing communication tools that a business can use to create awareness about its brand to increase customer visitation to its stores. The choice of communication mix to adopt significantly depends on the objectives of an organization.
6 Research Design This research proposal aims to provide a marketing communication strategy that the company can use to create awareness about its stores and help increase the number of customers visiting the store for its fashion product. Both qualitative and quantitative designs have been developed for this study. Qualitative Design Sampling procedure This research will follow a simple random sampling procedure to get a small sample size from a large number of fashion consumers in London and use it to make generalizations about the entire market. The simple random sampling method is easy to use and can provide an accurate representation of the city's larger population of fashion consumers. Focus group For this study, a focus group that primarily consists of six campus students will be used to learn more about how fashion consumers feel about the company's fashion brand. Focus group will also be instrumental in helping gain insight into the consumers' emotional involvement, given that its new ideas and thoughts can be generated from the respondents. Thus, the focus group will be used to explore general consumer attitudes and motivation towards purchasing apparel, perception towards the company's fashion products, and choice of channel. Focus groups can also be carried out to understand customers' perceptions towards competitors and towards the company's brands to assist in the development of a new product. Qualitative data will be obtained through face-to-face interviews with the selected population representatives. Such an interview will be instrumental in exploring the views, lifestyles, values, and motivations of potential customers with regards to their consumption of fashion.
7 Approach to data analysis Unlike quantitative data, qualitative data cannot be encoded in specific numbers due to its non-numeric nature. A simple approach to the analysis of this data will be followed to establish common themes and correlations between answers. The data analysis process will entail breaking transcripts down into smaller pieces to establish common themes and correlations, upon which assumptions will be derived and asserted to refine valid explanations. The processes will be repeated continuously until no perception or knowledge occurs. After the examination of the scripts, data will be compressed and presented in tables, figures, or matrixes to allow for easy interpretation and drawing of conclusions. Quantitative Design Sampling procedure The study will utilize a non-probability sampling technique to obtain study participants. According to secondary research carried out over the internet, individuals aged between 20 and 35 years have more purchasing power. Thus, this age group is picked as the sample for the study. 15 customers aged between 20 and 35 years who purchased clothing items would be selected as a sample for the study's focus group.
8 Conceptual definition table
Integrated marketing Communication strategy Advertising, personal selling, sales promotion, public relations, mobile marketing, and social media marketing
Customer Lifestyle
Store Awareness and customer influx
Values
Motivations
Approach to data analysis The quantitative data collection method will primarily consist of a survey. Questionnaires will be sent to the respondents through email for them to answer. Questionnaires present a significantly economical way of obtaining data from the respondents. With this method, the researcher does not have to visit the respondents personally or continue studying the respondents over a long time. Also, with questionnaires, respondents have ample time to think through a question before given his or her answer.
9 Summary/Recommendations In summary, this research proposal aims to determine an appropriate communication mix that will help Selected increase awareness for its flagship store and increase the traffic into the store. The study has adopted research questions and objectives, as stated in the previous sections. Research methods that will be used in this study will combine qualitative and quantitative techniques. Qualitative data will be obtained through face-to-face interviews of the members of the target group, which primarily consist of college students aged between 20 and 35 years of age. It is believed that such interviews will be instrumental in exploring the views, lifestyles, values, and motivations of potential customers with regards to their consumption of fashion. On the other hand, quantitative data will be obtained from answered questionnaires that had been mailed to them for replies. Questionnaires present a significantly economical way of obtaining data from the respondents. With this method, the researcher does not have to visit the respondents personally or continue studying the respondents over a long time. Also, with questionnaires, respondents have ample time to think through a question before writing his or her answer. Nonetheless, qualitative research data collection methods may prove to be generally expansive, thus resulting in the use of a small sample size. Traveling from one place to another to have face-to-face interviews with the respondents is expensive in terms of costs and timeconsuming. On the other hand, questionnaires are only applicable to respondents who have considerable levels of education. Given the lack of personal contact in the case of mailed questionnaires, researchers cannot find it difficult to establish a proper personal relationship with the respondents to help them understand some of the technical terms used in the questionnaire.
10 This may result in the respondents not giving their honest opinions in the questionnaires or returning them. Despite the possible disadvantages, both quantitative and qualitative research designs will significantly help solve the marketing problems defined in this study. The designs will reveal the most appropriate communication mix that can help the company increase awareness of its stores and, at the same time, enhance customer visitations into the store. In particular, increased use of the internet and penetration of smartphones qualifies mobile and social media marketing as the most appropriate strategies that will help the company achieve its marketing objectives in the highly competitive London market.
11 References Boardman, R., Haschka, Y., Chrimes, C., & Alexander, B. (2020). Fashion "see-now-buy-now": implications and process adaptations. Journal of Fashion Marketing and Management: An International Journal. 1-27 Henninger, C.E., Alevizou, P.J., & Oates, C.J. (2017). IMC, social media, and UK fashion micro-organizations. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3), 668-691. Nagaraj, S. (2020). Customer Engagement by Fashion Brands: An Effective Marketing Strategy. In Circular Economy and Re-Commerce in the Fashion Industry (pp. 161-175). IGI Global. Ots, M., & Nyilasy, G. (2017). Just doing it: theorizing integrated marketing communications (IMC) practices. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3):490-510 Patten, E., Ozuem, W., Howell, K., & Lancaster, G. (2020). Minding the competition: The drivers for multichannel service quality in fashion retailing. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 53, 101974. Šerić, M. (2017). Relationships between social Web, IMC, and overall brand equity. European Journal of Marketing, 51(3): 646-667