A Marketing Proposal for Tesco - Research Paper Example

School: Topic: A Marketing Research Proposal for Tesco Lecturer: Executive summary Tesco is d to be faced with stern competition in the current global business environment. In situations like this, there are several ways in which the company may respond to remain competitive in the global market. One of these ways is through internationalisation. As emerging markets remain less exploited regardless of the numerous business opportunities that they present, it is important that Tesco focus on these markets. To do this comprehensively and successfully, it is important that a market research will be performed. It is proposed that the market research will seek to achieve the objectives of finings opportunities in emerging markets, finding best enter strategies, and finding the success and failure factors that prevail for Tesco in going international. The market research is proposed to be undertaken as a mixed research that makes use of both quantitative data collection and qualitative data collection. The study is also proposed to involve the use of both secondary and primary data collection with major emphasis on primary data collection. As part of primary data collection, case study inductive research is recommended. With a successful market research, Tesco will be best positioned to take advantage of internationalisation to emerging markets. Contents Executive summary 1 1.0 Purpose and scope 4 2.0 objectives 4 3.0 Research approach 5 4.0 Secondary data and primary data collection 6 4.1 Secondary data 6 4.2 Primary data 8 5.0 Qualitative versus Quantitative Data Collection 9 5.1 Qualitative data 9 5.2 Quantitative data 10 6.0 Data collection method 11 7.0 Sampling 13 8.0 Data analysis and interpretation 14 9.0 Reliability and validity 15 1.0 Purpose and scope The purpose of this proposal is to set the basis by which Tesco can gather sufficient data about the emerging markets as part of internationalisation strategies to enter the emerging market. Particular emphasis shall be placed on Mexico, Brazil and Nigeria as emerging markets. Tesco is in the grocery and general merchandise industry and operates as a multinational company based on England. The company currently has 6,784 stores across 12 countries and operates with an operating income of £3.054 billion, which is the result of net income of £124.0 million (quote). Internationalisation for Tesco is necessary as the company has been recording declining net income, total assets and total equity, which is an indication of possible market saturation in its current markets (quote). 2.0 objectives One way to respond to Tesco’s stern global competition is through internationalization (quote). But to go international and succeed on the international market, it is important that a market research will be conducted to know the targeted market well. Three major objectives are set and given below 1. To find the opportunities that exists for Tesco in emerging markets 2. To find the best entry strategies that may be adopted by Tesco in entering emerging markets 3. To find the success and failure factors that Tesco faces in entering into the emerging markets 3.0 Research approach Quote (year) identified two major types of research approaches which are inductive and deductive research approaches. Deductive research is a type of approach in which the researcher develops a hypothesis and systematically tests the hypothesis through the use of data collection in order to establish a theory (quote). Deductive approach has been noted to be generally applicable to scientific research when the researcher has background information that informs the formation of the hypothesis (quote). Inductive research functions in an opposite manner to the deductive approach because it involves the construction of theory by providing the researcher the flexibility of modifying the research emphasis until accumulated findings have been collected in the research process (quote). To a large extent therefore, in deductive approach, the researcher works from the known through hypothesis to the unknown through the establishment of theory. In the inductive approach however, researcher works from the unknown to the known. In the proposed market research, the researcher shall adopt the use of inductive research approach. There are a number of reasons that informs the use of inductive approach. In the first place, the researcher wants to gain greater flexibility with the data collection method. Meanwhile when using a deductive approach, such flexibility is lacking because strict data collection methods that satisfies the hypothesis set must be used (quote). In the proposed research however, there will be no such hypothesis that will restrict the data collection method, making the inductive approach highly relevant. Another reason for selecting the inductive approach is in the fact that the market research will be performed as a social research rather than a scientific research. Meanwhile quote (year) noted the deductive approach as being appropriate for scientific research and inductive approach for social research. Indeed, social research has a form of dynamism that can be said to be highly conducive with the use of inductive approach. This dynamism has to do with the fact that the researcher strives to understand human behaviour and the factors that influence these. To achieve this, there must be as much manipulation and flexibility with data collection as possible (quote). 4.0 Secondary data and primary data collection 4.1 Secondary data Secondary data basically refers to a type of data that is already in existence and has been used in previous studies (quote). This means that secondary data was collected by someone who is not exactly the researcher undertaking the research. There are several sources from which secondary data may be found and collected, including organisational records, national database, academic databases, and database of universities (quote). A research that relies exclusively on secondary data can thus be referred to as a secondary research. The proposed study will combine secondary data with primary data. There are several reasons for which secondary data will be used in the proposed study. Generally, secondary data shall be used by consulting organisational database for statistical facts and figures about Tesco’s market performance over the past decade. Academic sources shall also be used in performing literature review where a theoretical framework shall be established for the study. Such theoretical framework will basically comprise theories and models that explain the concept of internationalisation and why internationalisation is relevant for Tesco’s ambition to face its stern global competition. From these approaches from which secondary data will be used, it would be noticed that secondary data is important because it will allow extensive access to data (quote). Regardless of the advantages associated with the use of secondary data collection in research of this nature, secondary data has its own setbacks. In the first place, secondary data may be lacking the sought of validation and authenticity that the researcher may need to undertake a credible study (quote). This is largely so because the researcher does not get the secondary data at first hand. What is more, most forms of secondary data that may be available to the researcher may be outdated and not suitable for the current period under which a concept is being considered (quote). 4.2 Primary data Unlike secondary data, primary data is the result of the researcher’s original data collection process. Primary data is therefore a set of data collected personally by the researcher from the research setting (quote). In the proposed market research, the research setting is the larger Tesco market where consumers engage in trade and business with the company. Collecting data from this research setting and refining it for the purpose of study therefore constitutes primary data collection. Because primary data is the direct outcome of the researcher’s personal data collection, such data can be trusted or its originality, authenticity and validity (quote). This is because the researcher has the control to put the data collected through all forms of validity and reliability tests. Another advantage associated with the use of primary data is that it allows the researcher access to unadulterated information. This is because no third party reports are used and so the chance that the originality of the data will be changed is unlikely (quote). The advantages with primary data and its collection notwithstanding, it may generally be criticised as being time consuming especially when the researcher is tasked to complete the study within a well defined time frame (quote). It would be noted that most market researches are needed to address market situations within a very specific time frame. Meanwhile, primary data collection may require more time than can be available to the researcher. Again, most primary data collection processes are often restricted to smaller research settings as it may be difficult to cover a large research area through personal data collection. 5.0 Qualitative versus Quantitative Data Collection 5.1 Qualitative data A qualitative research may be defined as one that seeks to investigate why and how decision making processes take place (quote). In effect, such data that explains why people behave in a certain manner and how their behaviour comes about constitutes qualitative data. For the proposed study, there are a number of qualitative data that will be used, which have to do with the purchasing behaviour of consumers within the targeted markets for Tesco. These qualitative data are expected to explain why consumers buy in a certain pattern and how their purchasing behaviour can affect Tesco’s international success. Qualitative data has a lot of advantages, including the fact that it enables the researcher to have an in-depth understanding of an issue or a concept (quote). Quote (year) posited that the in-depth understanding is gained because the researcher is forced to get very close to the variables and subjects involved in the phenomenon being investigated before the subjects can be understood. What is more, because social research tries to understand the way of life of people, qualitative research has been noted to be very ideal for undertaking social research as it also focuses on human behaviour (quote). The difficulty associated with the analysis of qualitative data has been pointed to as one of its major weaknesses or disadvantages (quote). The analysis of qualitative data may be generally difficult because most forms of qualitative data that are collected are not tangible. For example when the proposed research collects data on why people buy a certain line of products, it will be difficult to quantify their behaviour in very specific terms. Again, the analysis of qualitative data has often been associated with biases and subjectivity on the part of researchers. This is also because of the intangible nature of qualitative data (quote). 5.2 Quantitative data Opposite to the qualitative research, a quantitative research involves the systematic empirical investigation of phenomenon that can be considered as observable and tangible (quote). As a result of this, quantitative research is performed through the use of statistical, mathematical or numeric indices. Any form of data that gives an empirical mathematical, statistical or numeric notation to a concept or phenomenon can be considered to be quantitative data. In the proposed study, quantitative data that will be used will largely focus on market values on the performance of Tesco in different markets. These will then be related to emerging markets to predict the chances of survival and growth for Tesco in the emerging markets. The major advantage with the use of quantitative data is that it is highly fact based, making it difficult for the researcher to subjectively manipulate the implications that the quantitative data seeks to draw (quote). For example if the market growth of Tesco in 2012 was 15% and that of 2013 was 9%, there would be only one interpretation to this and that is, Tesco has recorded a decline in its growth. As a result of this, the validity associated with quantitative research has been said to be higher than qualitative research (quote). Quote (year) also held the view that quantitative data are easier to analyse as they come in tangible forms. Quote (year) however stated that quantitative data have the weakness of lacking elasticity. What this implies is that any data collected for a particular time period may not be the true reflection of overall phenomenon that is being investigated. For example, when Tesco’s growth in 2013 is taken in isolation, it will be very difficult to draw an overall conclusion on the company’s performance. To avoid this disadvantage with quantitative data, it is always recommended that the time period set for data collection will be longitudinal (quote). This is because such longitudinal time horizon examines phenomena over a given time period rather than a particular moment (quote). 6.0 Data collection method One major factor that influences the selection of data collection method for the proposed study the ability of the said data collection method to perfectly combine qualitative data with quantitative data, as well as primary data with secondary data. Quantitative and primary data will mainly be collected through the use of a questionnaire whiles qualitative and secondary data will be collected through the use of interview. In this, quote (year) recommended that use of case study as being appropriate for serving this purpose. As related to the use of inductive research approach, case study enhances greater flexibility where the researcher may easily switch between the uses of data collection processes that best helps in addressing the issue raised in the research. The case study data collection method will be used with internationalisation process of Tesco into emerging markets as the case being studied. The use of case study is expected to yield an advantage of ensuring that there will be in-depth analysis of the issue of internationalisation success for Tesco. This is to be achieved as Tesco will be a single entity to be investigated. This way, the researcher will not be faced with the challenge of looking at several variables at a time. Another advantage is that the case study will make it possible to easily change hands in the data collection processes where quantitative data, qualitative data, primary data, and secondary data may all be used for the same purpose. A possible disadvantage with the use of the case study is that it will make the generalisation of findings from the study very difficult. What this implies is that the findings that will be made from the study may not be generalised for the overall multinational grocery and general merchandise retail industry. This is because only one entity will be used in the case study. Again, data collection process with case study may generally be difficult to achieve. This is because of the task of changing between data collection processes. In some cases, the pressure in handling different types of data may compromise the success of the data collection process (quote). 7.0 Sampling The population of the study refers to the collection of people within the research setting with whom there is some degree of possibility of including directly in the study (quote). The proposed population for the study shall be in two forms. These are consumers of grocery and general merchandise products in targeted emerging markets and international marketing experts. Among these populations, two major sampling methods shall be undertaken. These are random sampling method and purposive sampling method. Random sampling will be used among the consumers, whiles the purposive sampling will be used among the international marketing experts. Random sampling will be used for the consumers so that the researcher can be assured of gathering many neutral and open ended consumers each of whom may have their own expectations from Tesco. The purposive sampling will on the other hand be used on the international marketing experts because it is important to land on very specific people with the required knowledge that the researcher will be seeking to gather through the interaction with the experts. The framework to be used on the consumers will be quantitative data collection through the use of questionnaire, while qualitative data collection through the use of interview shall be used on the international experts. It is expected that 500 consumers will be gathered whiles 10 international marketing expects will be involved. 8.0 Data analysis and interpretation The proposed market research is expected to make use of a mixed data analysis procedure. The rationale for using mixed data analysis procedure is in the fact that the data collection method will involve different types of data collection procedures. It is therefore important to vary the data analysis procedures to ensure that each of the data collection processes used can duly be catered for. Consequently, quantitative data analysis procedures that make use of such mathematical approaches to data analysis such as percentages, tabulations and graphs will be used. The interpretation of data is expected to be derived directly from the mathematical approaches. Qualitative data analysis procedures will also be used. In qualitative data analysis, the interpretation of findings may not be readily available until the researcher uses subjective and evidence based discretion to interpret findings (quote). Because of this, the qualitative data analysis shall be performed by setting qualitative themes that generally ask questions of why and how consumers behave in certain ways. Based on the qualitative data collected, each of these themes will then be analysed by comparing the findings to literature and giving the implications of the similarities or differences that exist in literature. 9.0 Reliability and validity Reliability will be said to be achieved when the assessment tools to be used which are questionnaire and interview produce stable and consistent results (quote). To ensure reliability of the study, test-retest strategy will be used. This is a reliability strategy in which the researcher administers the same test twice over a period of time using a group of individuals to test the consistency with results (quote). Validity on the other hand refers to the extent to which the research tools measure what they were purported to measure (quote). To achieve validity, sampling validity will be emphasised. This means that the researcher shall use a random sample where chances of manipulating the outcome of the research by the researcher cannot be possible. 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