M1 Explain and justify methods used to identify the target market for the proposed business.
Within this assignment, I will be explaining the different methods I will apply in order to identify the target market for my proposed business.
To find out my target market I will use primary research as well as secondary research, as I feel both will provide me with accurate, detailed and reliable information as they both have their own individual benefits along with their own drawbacks. By using both, though, I will be able to eliminate both the drawbacks and have access to reliable information and data that can help me determine my target market properly. I chose to use 1 primary research tool, a questionnaire, together with 1 secondary internet research process.
Create a questionnaire and give it to people as it is an easy and efficient process as well as unique to my business needs. Therefore, the benefits of using a questionnaire are that people are familiar with the format, it is easy to understand and clearly laid out. The data I receive is going to be new and up-to-date, because I know where it comes from. It allows a vast amount of information to be obtained in a short amount of time from a large number of people. For comparison and evaluation, the results of the questionnaire can be easily converted into graphs and charts. None of my rivals, as I do myself, will be able to steal or clone this data and it will be unique to my company needs to ensure exclusivity.
Nonetheless, questionnaires also have drawbacks. We lack credibility as anyone with random answers can answer the questions just to complete the questionnaire meaning there is no way to tell how accurate their answers are. Others claim it’s ineffective because there are different response types including long answers, multiple choices, etc. It could become expensive to produce the questionnaires and waste a lot of money to produce the resources and equipment and materials as I want it to be accurate, which means I’ll have to start from scratch. Questionnaires are a good research tool for my company as I can apply the questions to my business needs as well as choose who will answer my questionnaire.
The second type of research I’m going to do is research on the internet that helps me identify my target market. This is because it helps me to receive at once a large sample of data that increases the amount of statistics I have. Therefore, data is automatically entered into the database, no data entry errors occur. This is a more inclusive sample-based study rather than a conventional old-based research that is great for my proposed company because all the rivals in the restaurant industry will have already done research and this would have been published on the internet, so this is not going to be difficult to find and there should be no shortage of information on the internet. Internet research is a cheap way to gather information because you don’t need to supply any materials or facilities as the study has already been collected.
On the other hand, sometimes you might rush through this research that might mean you don’t read something properly, and this may result in collecting inaccurate research that is wrong and invalid to my research that won’t be useful. A huge percentage of internet information is also unreliable and can be very unpredictable because people with no experience can publish information on the internet that has no basis of validity, which is why I will be extremely careful when browsing through the internet and carefully looking for websites and sources that have a clear connection.
There are some kinds of research that I would not engage in, such as interviews. This is because the interview costs can be quite high, because people’s workers are expected to perform the interviews. Now a day’s interviews in a paper form are old-fashioned, and none of them are willing to answer because they are usually done on iPads or tablets that cost too much cash. Also, the quality of the data that I will receive will often depend on the interviewee’s ability as some people have natural ability to conduct an interview, but some people may be shy and other data may not be good. It’s normal for most people that they’re not naturally good at conducting interviews, which is why I’m not going to use interviews to define my company target market. The sample size in an interview is limited because for a long period of time some people may not be willing to answer questions. However, if the interview is recorded on paper, the collected data will need to be entered manually and scanned into a device, however data entry that cost a significant amount of money because iPads or tablets etc. may need to be needed.
Additionally, a focus group is a good research method however, it is not suitable for me to identify the target market for my proposed business. This is because they can be moderately bias because people may intentionally put their personal opinions into the other participant’s exchange of ideas. This may make the results inaccurate because the group participants may reach certain assumptions or conclusions about a certain idea or product. Also focus groups are not in such depth compared to an individual interview because they are not as efficient in covering a lot of detailed information.
Postal surveys are a widely used research tool, as they allow you to obtain a large sample of work using a very low-cost approach with limited resources. However, there is no way to find out who did respond to the questionnaire and who did not. They are straightforward and easy to fill out as they have a basic format that allows respondents to pick answers from a present response set. I don’t think postal surveys are the most appropriate research tool so I can’t get immediate answers that aren’t helpful if I need a lot of information in a short time. So I’m not going to use postal surveys as a research method because it’s not ideal for the study I need to find out.
To conclude, I think that my chosen research methods are the most suitable methods because questionnaires are in a format that people are familiar with, making people more likely to answer because they understand what they are doing and the meaning of them. These are easy to understand because they are clearly written allowing different question types to obtain a large range of answers that is really helpful for me to gather a huge amount of data that suits well with questionnaires. As well as questionnaires, internet research is the most appropriate research method for me to use because I will be able to obtain a large amount of information in one go because it’s all in one location, it’s a simple research method that makes it useful because no one really reads books or uses conventional research methods in modern times and era. Both of these forms of study are the most suitable approaches I want to find out which is my target audience. Overall, the two most appropriate tools for my research are the questionnaires and internet research out of all the research methods I think.
