Qualitative Methodology For Examining The Role Of Advertising In The Success And Sustainability Of L’Oreal

Research Problem

For this assignment, you will build on your assignment from last week and further explore how you might examine your research problem using a qualitative methodology. Respond to the following questions:

• How might fieldwork and observation be used to answer your research questions? What role would fieldnotes play in this process?
   
• How might interviewing be used to answer your research questions? Would you use face-to-face interviews or electronic interviews? Why or why not? Would you interview participants individually or in a group? Why or why not? What are the advantages and disadvantages to using interviews to collect your data? .
   
• Discuss ethical issues to consider with these qualitative data collection methods.
   
• It is also important to consider how you might code the potential data you collect. Krathwohl (2009) lists 14 steps to consider in coding and analysis. Reflect how each step would apply/be used in the hypothetical research scenario you have been considering.

Many companies have adopted the method of advertising to promote their brand. This action is also used by Wal-Mart, Pepsi, HP, L’Oreal, etc. A huge investment is seen to be made by them to perform this activity. Among the various tools of advertising, the leading way of reaching the customers with quality goods and services is through advertising. The main question that arises in this research is that inspite of having a dominant position in the market do they really require invest in advertising (Arthur, 2012). The cost related to advertisement and marketing is a separate cost and for this monopoly has nothing to do in this regard. To understand the problem we need to look into the benefits of marketing and advertisement. Marketing of products helps us to communicate and know who the prospective customers are. After knowing, the owner will promote the brand as per that. This is done, so the users of the product get accustomed to the product and does not move to any other product.

The L’Oreal Company has used the method of communication to get hold of customers. The market share of the company has amplified and is considered a renowned cosmetic brand. Advertising has also fetched the company with huge customer holding. The other negative thing that goes unnoticed is the way the cost of the company is escalating with the rise in expenditure on advertising (Barbour, 2008). This would likely reduce the profit of the company. The research focuses on whether continued advertisement a good method of marketing. With more rivals in the market L’Oreal is facing competition from Avon, Revlon, and Unilever etc. in order to maintain the market share and dominant position it should adopt strategies that will help in retaining its competitive situation (Bazeley & Jackson, 2013). The strategy that can be adopted is the advertising and marketing techniques for maintaining the present success and sustainability.

 The main purpose of this research is to see the following:

•    Whether Advertising holds important for the company.

•    Importance of the continued spending in advertising and marketing activities.

•    Analyzing the affects of the consequences of limited activity related to advertisement and marketing.

•    What is the amount of money that is needed by the company L’Oreal to invest in advertising and marketing?

Purpose

•    What are the actions that the company L’Oreal needs to take up for implementing the advertising and marketing techniques?

•    Why is it seen that the company L’Oreal is still appending money on advertising and marketing?

In this research, we use the qualitative method of research with the focus on descriptive research. A field research is conducted to analyze which group of customers are the potential ones. The tool that was used for the purpose of conducting the survey was the use of Questionnaire (Carlsen & Dutton, 2011). The questionnaire has some important question that pertained mainly towards our research questions. The focus was on the age group of 24-30 this is because this group is more likely to use cosmetic products. The manager of the company is to be also interviewed in this regard (Krathwohl, 2009). When the customers are being questioned on their preferences of a product, we get to know their choices. This will help the company to decide to on which product they will focus on advertising and marketing (Savin-Baden & Major, 2012). The company will also ensure better technology and research and development be made on the product. The questionnaire provides a true picture of the market scenario. The other analysis that is to be made is whether there is any variation in the operation of the company in different geographical areas.

The advantages of using this observation are:

•    The collection of data is done related to the issue of the research, and so the data is collected from the customers who are the users of L’Oreal product or is likely to use one in future.

•    The researcher has some control on the research. The size of the sample observation and the project size are decided by the researcher. This gives flexibility and the result achieved is also fair enough.

•    There is no use of secondary research where money is to be spent. Moreover, primary data collection has a greater degree of originality (Cox & Donnelly, 2011). This makes the outcome better one.

•    The information collected is maintained in the company databases so that it can be reviewed further in the future.

•    The observation that has been collected might not hold a good picture. The customers might also make fake comments then research does not provide a clear picture.

•    There might be the candidate in the sample who does not fall in the age group we have considered so there might be biased results.

Research Question

•    There is no assurance that the person being interviewed will be further inclined to buy L’Oreal products future.

The customers in the research are to be directly interviewed by the interviewer. When the researcher interviews the candidates directly, then he gets responses of the unadulterated form (Denzin & Lincoln ,2005). The interview also was conducted on the managers of the company to know their methods marketing strategies and whether they are considering their profit levels as well. The other way of interviewing is through sending questionnaires through emails (Denzin & Lincoln, 2000). When emails are sent to the customers, we may or may not get their feed backs. There are also chances that the papers are filled in by someone else. The research will be conducted by using the face to face method (Silverman, 2005). This will let us know that the data being collected from the people are genuine and also let us know that they are company’s future customers. There are basically two sects that are to be interviewed i.e. the managers to know the importance of investment in advertisement and marketing and the customers to know their product preferences. The customers are to be interviewed by noting their responses in the questionnaire and the managers were interrogated through face to face interview (Roth, 2005). When the customers are interviewed individually the opinions are likely to differ and these give us a true picture.

The advantages that are associated with interview mode for data collection are:

•    When there is any mistake done or there is any misunderstanding arising on the part of the interviewer than the problems can be resolved when there is a face to face interview (Feinstein, 2002).

•    When the interviewer takes interview then he develops a cordial relationship as well as cooperation with the interviewee (Hahn, 2008) . This helps the interviewee to provide their information more accurately when they gain assurance from the side of the interviewer.

•    The candidates are chosen depending on the suitability for the interview process (Hatch, 2002). This will help the interviewer to get detailed information on the research.

•     The data collected by the interviewer is of the fresh form and can be changed as per the requirement of the interviewer.

•    Interview is the least expensive form of communication mode.

•    The method of problem interview is used to solve the issues that are faced during the interview.

Usage of Field Work and Observation

•    Interview can be organized any time according to the convenience of interviewer and the interviewee.

Disadvantages of carrying out interview are:

•     There might arise in the process that suitable candidates are not available and so the research results also do not show a true picture.

•    There is no evidence to the data that is collected so this might lead to confusion in the future.

•    The interviewee’s lack of attention during the time of interview might create a fallacy in the research result.

•    There are several cases where the interviewed person may not be associated with the research. The data collected will therefore mislead the interviewer in arriving to a particular conclusion.

While conducting research there are some ethics that is to be followed so that the research can be completed without hazard. The ethics that are to be followed are:

•    Harmless approach:  This is the cornerstone of any ethical conduct. There might be a fear in the participants that they might be harmed while they are into the research process (Rice, 2007). The researcher must assure the participants that they will be safe in the research process.

•    Confidentiality:  The researcher must assure the interviewee that their information will not be leaked to any other source.

•    Friendship: A cordial relationship with the participants will help in gaining confidence of the participants.

There are two types of coding that is associated with the qualitative research process. These are the open coding and axial coding (Tesch, 2013). With open coding is the preliminary level of coding. This will help in analyzing different concepts and categories in the data. This helps in the basic unit of analysis in the research (Hollway & Jefferson, 2000). This will help in the categorization of the problem into two levels i.e. first and the second level. The researcher uses highlights to distinguish between concepts and the categories. Open code analysis will be used in the research.

References:

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