Final Version – Marketing Research Assignment Free Essay Example

Research Proposal

The Malta Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate

Presented by: The Scientific Way Ltd.

Background

The Malta Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate

The Malta Health Promotion and Disease Prevention Directorate (HPDP Malta) aims to protect and promote the health and wellbeing of people residing in the Maltese Islands by:

Supporting and empowering individuals to adopt a healthy lifestyle;

Carrying out effective surveillance and control of communicable diseases;

Developing and implementing strategies for the reduction of the burden of communicable and non-communicable diseases;

Advocating for the creation of environments conducive to health.

HPDP Malta wants to see the people in Malta live healthier, more rewarding lives. It reaches out to people within their everyday life settings to educate on making the right choices for one’s own health. Several programmes are organised throughout the year and progress is monitored via appropriate research, indicators and targets.

Healthy Weight for Life Programme

One of the programmes run by HPDP Malta is the Healthy Weight for Life Programme.

This programme seeks to offer weight management and free aerobics classes to people aged over 18 years with a Body Mass Index (BMI) of over 25. HPDP Malta also actively engages in information campaigns to lose weight in a healthy manner.

Objectives

HPDP Malta wants to carry out research to:

Understand what MCAST students are currently eating and drinking whilst on campus.

Identify the main source of the food or drink consumed on campus e.g. meals prepared at home, canteen or other.

Test whether there is a correlation between the type of food or drink consumed on campus and the BMI of the individual.

Test whether there is a correlation between the source of food and the BMI of the individual.

Identify the promotional mediums that students follow. This information is important should an educational campaign be required.

Learn about exemplary school meal policies and plans in tertiary institutions around Europe as HPDP might consider the introduction of school meal plans at MCAST in the future.

Explore why students make the nutrition choices that they make.

The use of Marketing Research

Marketing research will help HPDP Malta in its decision making by:

In order to target the right margin of customers at the right time, one should to have an effective market research project. This will reflect in the revenues of the company.

Market research conducted by the company can be both out sourced to an agency or conducted in-house whilst adopting cost effective methods.

One can improve brand strategy and positioning as well as brand awareness and personification by identify characteristics and trades of students attending MCAST.

The language used in the marketing campaign should manifest the language that your customers are familiar with. This will ensure that the customers are more responsive to the marketing campaign, hence strengthening the effects of such campaign.

It is of utmost importance that the company evaluates their competitors to be in a position to better understand the customer’s needs and wants.

The market research helps the business to distinguish their strengths from their weaknesses, whilst establishing any weak points of your products being sold on the market against those of your competitors.

The best way to cater to customers is to target their market by providing customized products. To attain this, one should have a good understanding of the consumers needs and wants, by gathering data different sources example from surveys (Primary Data).

Primary data measures the effectiveness of the company’s marketing campaign. Moreover, this will help the company identify possible substitutes for the products whilst keeping updated with the latest innovations.

Qualitative and quantitative data collection help in the process of decision making by assisting the company to take a quicker decision and reduce risks.

(RAO, 2016)

Approach and Method

Desk research

We believe that the following secondary data (but not only) is crucial for this project:

Discovering the meaning of a ‘non-communicable disease’ and the effects of obesity on health and the country’s economy.

Learning about Body Mass Index (BMI) and how Malta compares to other European countries.

Understanding the salient points in the Food and Nutrition Policy and Action Plan for Malta (2015-2020) and other relevant publications/laws.

Learning about the national food and nutrition policies adopted by another European country that do not have a weight management problem. Subsequently, find examples of exemplary tertiary education school meal plans in this same country. Learn about the menu, price, meal times, school kitchen/outsourced, etc.

Compiling a list of Institutes on the MCAST Paola campus together with the name of the Director and respective contact details.

Fieldwork

Undertake quantitative research to ascertain what MCAST students are eating on campus, the food source, students’ BMI and promotional mediums that students follow nutrition choices.

Quantitative Data- Quantitative research collects data in a numerical form, emphasising objective measurements and the statistical, mathematical data collected through polls, questionnaires, and surveys, or by editing pre-existing statistical data using computational techniques. The data collected can be used to formulate graphs or tables whilst depicting the information collected in categories to explain a particular phenomenon.

(McLeod, 2017), (Libguides.usc.edu, 2019)

Qualitative Data – Qualitative research is factual research where the data collected in not in numerical form. It involves a construed, naturalistic approach to its subject matter. This means that qualitative researchers study things in their natural settings, with the aim of understanding the social reality of people. (McLeod, 2017)

Reporting and Presentational Requirement

Reporting and presentational requirements

Progress meetings will be held on a weekly basis at the Institute of Business Management and Commerce in Paola. Deliverables for such meetings will be communicated on a week-to-week basis.

Some significant milestone meetings will require a deliverable as follows. Detailed secondary research report by mid-January.

Detailed sampling strategy report and data collection questionnaire(s) by middle of February.

Quantitative data tabulation and qualitative transcripts by mid-April.

The final written report with detailed data analysis, conclusions and recommendations is to be handed in by mid-May.

Presentation of findings in the form of a PowerPoint presentation will be held after the submission of the detailed final report.

Timing

Once the contract is awarded, this research project will commence on the 1st January 2019 and the project timeline illustrated in Table 1 will be adopted. We aim, that between May 13th and May 22nd, we would have presented our findings at your offices.

Weekly Activity

Table 1: Marketing Research Timeline

Week Activity

• 1-3 Desk Research and Project Planning
• 4-7 Questionnaire(s) and sampling
• 8-12 Qualitative fieldwork and transcription
• 13-15 Quantitative fieldwork and data tabulation
• 16-18 Data Analysis
• 19-20 Final Report
• 20-22 Presentation of findings

Fees

The total cost of the research programme as specified in this proposal will be ˆ7,250 excluding VAT (ˆ8,555 including 18% VAT), which includes all research fees and expenses, agency client’s meetings, an interim presentation, and a final presentation at the client’s offices on conclusion of the research.

Phase Fee (ˆ)

Desk research 1,000

Qualitative research (12 depth research) 3,000

Quantitative research (125 telephone research) 3,250

Total fee 7,250

Invoicing will be in two instalments: 50 per cent on commission and the balance on sub-mission of the final written report. Payment is due within ten days of receipt of invoice.

Table 2: Total Cost of Research Programme including Research Fees (Wilson, 2012)

Project Management and Resources

For us at The Scientific Way Ltd, this will be our first big marketing project. We are a group of MCAST students, who are currently reading an Advanced Diploma in Business Administration. We feel that we are knowledgeable enough about the subject matter to successfully complete this research proposal.

Related experience

This section, sets the background on the company who is doing the research, highlighting what experience it has while doing similar projects. Some clients, may also ask the company, to give them references from previous clients after being trusted with the research proposal.

Our company was formed last year, in October 2018. This is the first big marketing research project that we will be undertaking. We strongly believe that we are in a position of taking up and successfully completing this big marketing research proposal.

Bibliography

RAO, P. (2016). 7 Reasons why market research leads any business decision. Available at: < [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].

McLeod, S. (2017). Qualitative vs Quantitative Research | Simply Psychology. Available at:< [Accessed 6 Dec. 2018].

Libguides.usc.edu. (2019). Research Guides: Organizing Your Social Sciences Research Paper: Quantitative Methods. Available at: < [Accessed 4 Jan. 2019].

Wilson, A. (2012). Marketing Research: An integrated Approach. 3rd ed. Harlow: Pearson Education Ltd., p.32.