Marketing Research Program for Castle Bingo - Essay Example

?Castle Bingo Executive Summary The research proposal is based on developing a marketing research programme for Castle Leisure. With the increasing popularity of internet and social media, online gaming activities have become prevalent among people. It has generated new customer segments with varied characteristics than offline players. The market of online bingo playing is increasing considerably. However, in order to take the advantage of these players there is a need to understand the differences in between offline and online players. Therefore, the research proposal provides the framework about undertaking a market research for a Bingo club chain named Castle Leisure. It will facilitate to understand the requirements of both offline and online customers segments and therefore help to take better marketing decisions. The research will be undertaken by using exploratory and mixed methods. These approaches will be appropriate for the research because it will effectively enable to understand the thoughts and perceptions of these two customer segments. Furthermore, in order to collect information about the players, questionnaire method has been suggested. The data would be analysed by measures of dispersion method and descriptive analysis technique. It will not only help to understand the research phenomenon but also help to describe the reason behind it. By undertaking the literature survey on the topic, it has been found that online gaming is an international business and many strong players are trying to create a strong position in this business. However, since online gaming is a new phenomenon, targeting these customers require different strategies than offline players. There are considerable differences and similarities between online and offline players. Concentrating on this aspect, it is recommended that Castle Leisure needs to undertake a market survey in order to recognise the requirements of this new customer segment and comprehend how it is different from offline players. It has also been recommended that around 1000 samples would be studied on the basis of judgemental sampling method to gain a clear understanding about the market segment. Table of Contents Executive Summary 2 Introduction 5 Problem Definition 5 Literature Review 6 Research Design 8 Research Methods 9 Sampling 10 Data Collection 11 Data Analysis 12 References 14 Introduction Marketing research is a methodical and objective process for searching and examining information which are appropriate for identification and explanation of any issue in the area of marketing. Marketing research facilitates to find reasoned responses for a predetermined task of business in systematic manner. This denotes that in order to undertake marketing research, a plan needs to be developed sensibly with specifying every phase (FAO, 2013). Focusing on this aspect, the research will be based on developing a proposal for conducting market research in order to understand the customers’ requirements of Castle Leisure. Castle Leisure operates several bingo clubs throughout the United Kingdom and its market is divided into two types of customers namely offline and online gamers. The objective of the proposal is to investigate the differences between offline and online customers of bingo games which would help to better recognise their requirements. Problem Definition Bingo game is quite popular in several nations and it is played by both offline and online participants. However, considering the popularity of bingo game, very little research has been conducted about the attitude of people who are engaged in this game. Thus far, most of the researches were focused only on understanding the characteristics of offline bingo players. Since, online bingo playing is a new phenomenon, there are not many researches which concentrate on understanding the differences between these online and offline customers, about their preferences and other characteristics (Wilsenach, 2012). As earlier researches only focused on offline bingo players, it provides limited understanding on the requirements of the new segment i.e. online players. Furthermore, previous researches concentrated only on few aspects of offline customers such as age and gender demographics among others. Hence, keeping in view this problem, the research will be undertaken for understanding the characteristics of both offline as well as online bingo players. Literature Review The 21st century has observed a new category of gaming namely online gaming (Hertlein & Hawkins, 2012). According to the research of KPMG (2010), online gaming business is gradually moving into international markets and hence changing the structure of gambling industry. Nowadays, several people are turning to internet in order to gamble on different sports. Irrespective of likely political and legislative limitations, global online gambling market had produced about US$21.2 billion profits in the year 2008. It is expected that global online gambling market will increase considerably faster than offline gaming market. Given the increasing demand of online gaming, several organisations in the gaming industry are searching for utilising their abilities in order to reach the new market segments. On the basis of the statistics provided by the UK Gambling Commission, the licenced gaming organisations had generated about ?680.1 million in the year 2012. Among the entire revenue, bingo game accounted for about ?13.75 million in the same year (GamblingData, 2012). The following figure will show the online gaming market of the UK on the basis of share of different games: Source: (GamblingData, 2012) From the above graph, it can be observed that a considerable portion of online gaming market is shared by Bingo. Thus, in order to tap into this growing online gaming market, Castle Leisure firstly needs to understand the characteristics that drive people towards using online gaming (GamblingData, 2012). According to Wardle & et. al., (2010), there prevail a number of factors that drive people for gambling activities such as social, money, amusement, recreation and coping among others. These factors are determined by age group of people. For instance, gamblers within age group of 16 to 34 are involved into gambling activities due to amusement purposes. On the other hand, for age group of 35 to 54 years, the most probable reason for engaging into gambling activities is to earn money. Besides, the gender characteristics also impact the driving forces of engaging into gambling activities. The research of Wardle & et. al., (2010) also suggested that male gamblers prefer to gamble because of excitement or to cope up with stress and tension and female gambler like to gamble because of recreational and social purposes. According to the study of Griffiths (2012), there are several resemblances and differences between offline and online bingo players. For instance, most of female gamblers prefer to play bingo in online platform. On the other hand, male gamblers involve in both forms of bingo games. The reason most of female players prefer to play bingo in online environment is that internet gambling is gender neutral. Furthermore, female gamblers feel being dominated by male in offline environment which facilitate them in playing online bingo games. Nowadays, the social gaming websites such as Facebook and Myspace which allow people to enjoy playing the games such as Bingo and Poker are also increasing popularity. According to eGaming assessment, social networking occurrence is matching to the development of several gambling games such as Bingo. In online environment, people are feeling more comfortable to play these games. Thus, several gaming organisations are closely observing the attitudes of this new customer segment in order to exploit the market growth. This is the reason the marketing research will be undertaken in order to comprehend the characteristics of online customer segment along with offline customer segment (KPMG, 2010). Research Design Research design represents the outline or plan for undertaking the marketing research for Castle Leisure. Basically, there are three major types of research design that can be followed namely exploratory, descriptive and causal. In exploratory research, the key concentration is on understanding thoughts and perceptions of people. On the other hand, descriptive research is based on defining the regularity of the occurrence of certain incidents. Finally, causal research is based on determining the cause and effect relationship (Brown & Suter, 2012). Considering the characteristics of different research designs, the marketing research will follow the exploratory research design. The reason for using exploratory research design is that it can provide better understanding of the online and offline gaming situation. Besides, exploratory research will help to understand the reason for consumers to act in a certain way. Exploratory research is helpful for examining the trends of people towards gaming, thus it will help Castle Leisure to make decisions on the basis of the outcome (New York University, n.d.). Research Methods There are several methods of conducting exploratory research which are divided into three parts namely qualitative, quantitative and mixed methods. Qualitative method concentrates on learning and understanding the experiences, viewpoints and approaches of the participants. In other words, qualitative method explores the values, drives and actualities about the participants. On the other hand, quantitative research intends to enhance the fairness, reliability and generalisability of findings. This type of research is appropriate for any kind of phenomena which can be articulated with respect to quantity. The mixed approach is regarded as the combination of both qualitative and quantitative methods. This method has been developed in order to bridge the gap between qualitative and quantitative methods (Conrad & Serlin, 2011). With this concern, it can be stated that the proposed marketing research should be based on mixed approach. The reason for using mixed approach is that it will reflect the corresponding advantages of both methods by covering their drawbacks. By putting it in other way, it can be stated that mixed method can counterbalance the foreseeable biasness of each methods (Johnson & et. al., 2007). Sampling Sample is considered as a collection of participants from a specific population in order to conduct the survey. There are essentially two types of sampling method which can be followed in marketing research namely probability sampling and non-probability sampling. Probability sampling is a method of collecting participants where every person has equivalent opportunity to be selected in the sample. On the other hand, in non-probability sampling, participants are chosen on the basis of certain procedures, i.e. in this method, every individual of the population will not have equal opportunity of being selected in the survey. The key difference between probability and non-probability sample depends on the basic notion regarding the characteristics of population understudy (Doherty, 1994). Considering the characteristics of these two sampling methods, non-probability sampling would be suitable for the research. The reason for using non-probability sampling is that actual random sampling is quite challenging to accomplish. Moreover, it is practically difficult for collecting sample of respondents from entire population because the online and offline gaming industry is quite enormous. The other reason for using non-probability sampling in place of probability sampling is that accessing the huge population is not an easy task and there is a possibility that unknown proportion of population which does not relate with the subject can get selected. Thus, the result of the survey might not be generalizable (Wretman, 2010). Additionally, non-probability sampling is used for demonstrating specific traits which exist in population. There are several methods for non-probability sampling such as convenience sampling, consecutive sampling, quota sampling and judgmental sampling among others. In this research, judgment sampling should be followed. In this method, sample is chosen on the basis of understanding and professional decision. The samples which perfectly fit with the research i.e. only people who play offline and online Bingo games will be included in the study. As a result, this method can provide more accurate outcomes than probability sampling methods (Statistics Canada, 2009). Selecting the sample size of any survey is a vital task for marketing research. Both inadequate and excessive samples can have an impact on the quality as well as accuracy of research. Thus, optimum size of sample should be selected in the study. It is expected that for the market research, the optimum sample size should be about 1000, out of which 500 samples will be taken from online players of Bingo in the UK and the rest 500 will be taken from offline players of Bingo throughout different clubs of the UK. The reason for selecting the sample size is that it will provide sufficient information for understanding the characteristics of online as well as offline Bingo players. Selecting lower than 1000 samples can make the survey outcomes inaccurate while choosing higher sample size than 1000 can make it difficult for managing the data and analysing the information (Bartlett & et. al., 2001). Data Collection There are several methods for collecting primary data and the most common of them are observation method, interview method and questionnaire survey method. Observation method denotes methodical reflection and recording of different actions along with activities of participants in the existing social environment. This method is mostly used in qualitative studies. On the other hand, the other suitable method of data collection is interviewing method. This method occurs in the form of discussion between the researchers and the interviewees. In comparison to observation method, interview method helps to understand the meaning which underlines certain activities of people. However, in this research, interview method is not suitable because it is practically impossible to approach a huge extent of samples through conversation. Additionally, respondents can also feel uncomfortable in front of the interviewer to share information. The other important method of collecting data is through questionnaire method. Questionnaire is based on a set of questions about the research subject which helps to learn about the characteristics, approaches and opinions of respondents (Creswell, 2003). In this research, questionnaire method would be followed in order to understand the different requirements of customers. The reason for using questionnaire method is that it can help to collect considerable amount of valuable information from the sample. In addition, this method also allows the respondents the time to provide well thought-out answers which can facilitate to determine the characteristics of sample. Since the research involves quantitative data, questionnaire method will be suitable for the study (Marshall & Rossman, 2006). Data Analysis There are numerous methods for analysing data. Since the research is based on mixed approach both, both qualitative and quantitative methods will be used in order to analyse the data. With respect to quantitative method, there are three basis techniques which are measures of central tendency, measures of dispersion, data presentation and statistical test. In this research, measures of central tendency and data presentation method should be used for analysing the collected information. Measures of central tendency will help to define how data establish a loop together around a central fact. Three main measures including mean, median and mode must be used to derive the meaning gathered from primary data. On the other hand, different data presentation methods should also be used to summarise the findings in a proper way. The findings of the research survey can be demonstrated through polygon, histogram and several charts (Psychology Press Ltd, 2004). Whereas, quantitative methods can help to measure the number and frequency of certain activities of participants’ surveyed, qualitative method will help to explain the reason for those activities. Since the data will be scored through likert scaling technique, qualitative descriptive analysis method will help to define the reaction of respondents (Onwuegbuzie & Leech, 2006). The following figure will show the proposed plan for undertaking the market analysis: References Brown, T. J. & Suter, T. A., 2012. MR. 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J. & Leech, N. L., 2006. Linking Research Questions to Mixed Methods Data Analysis Procedures. The Qualitative Report, Vol. 11, No. 3, pp. 474-498. Psychology Press Ltd, 2004. Research Methods: Data Analysis. Uploads. [Online] Available at: http://www.smartpsych.co.uk/wp-content/uploads/2012/02/psych_methods1.pdf [Accessed May 10, 2013]. Statistics Canada, 2009. Non-probability Sampling. Sampling Methods. [Online] Available at: http://www.statcan.gc.ca/edu/power-pouvoir/ch13/nonprob/5214898-eng.htm [Accessed May 10, 2013]. Wardle, H. & et. al., 2010. British Gambling Prevalence Survey. National Centre for Social Research. [Online] Available at: http://www.gamblingcommission.gov.uk/PDF/British%20Gambling%20Prevalence%20Survey%202010.pdf [Accessed May 10, 2013]. Wretman, J., 2010. Re?ections on Probability vs. Nonprobability Sampling. Of?cial Statistics in Honor of Daniel Thorburn, pp. 29-35. Wilsenach, A., 2012. Regulating Online and Offline gaming: is there a Difference? iGaming Business North America, No. 1, pp. 26-27. Read More