While many industries in the Singapore economy are facing months of declining revenue during the pandemic, the grocery market has been experiencing an upward trend in revenue and the growth momentum is predicted to continue in the next one year. In 2020, it is estimated that there are more than 500 supermarket stores in the Singapore and the grocery market size is expected to hit S$9.9billion in 2023.
Even though there are about four major supermarket chains operating in Singapore, the competition in this industry has been fierce amid a shrinking local population. To thrive in this ultra-competitive industry, the management of a local supermarket chain wants to strengthen its market share in Singapore by bolstering its marketing efforts in the next few years. It is planning to launch a series of marketing campaign to attract more Singaporeans to spend more in its stores and thereby increase its market share in the grocery market.
The management of this supermarket chain believes that the best way to attract visitors to spend more in its stores is to increase the satisfaction level of its customers. To help the management better understand the attitudes of the grocery shoppers in Singapore, the supermarket chain would like to conduct a marketing research study. In particular, the management would like to find out whether factors such as brand image, service quality, perceived price, and corporate social responsibility (CSR) are important drivers of customer satisfaction.
Task
Assuming you are the marketing research consultant contacted by this local supermarket chain to design a marketing research study to meet the requirements of the management.
a) Research design
You are to write and submit a research proposal for the research study. In the proposal, you are to recommend a suitable research design to meet the objectives of the research study. In the proposal, you must provide justifications whether to conduct qualitative and/or quantitative research by comparing the applications and limitations of these two research approaches. You are expected to provide examples of business applications for these two research approaches. (~1,000 words)
b) Assuming that after studying a few research proposals from different marketing research agencies, the management decides to commission your company for the research study and wants to conduct a two-stage research design starting with qualitative research using online focus groups and then followed by quantitative study using telephone survey.
i) Online focus group discussions
As the moderator, explain how you would go about planning and conducting the online focus groups. The purpose of the online focus groups is to identify the key factors that will influence customer satisfaction and the findings will
As the moderator, explain how you would go about planning and conducting the online focus groups. The purpose of the online focus groups is to identify the key factors that will influence customer satisfaction and the findings will be used in the questionnaire’s design for the quantitative phase. You are expected to propose a maximum of 10 themes (with a maximum 3 questions for each theme) for the online focus group discussions. (~800 words)
ii) Telephone survey
For the quantitative phase of the research, you are to propose how you will select (or sample) the respondents for the telephone survey. In your discussion, you are to examine the benefits and limitations of non-probability and probability sampling. In addition, you are to select a sampling method (to choose between non-probability or probability sampling) and justify the selection of the sampling method you have chosen. (~800 words)
c) While searching for some documents in the company’s library, the marketing manager of the supermarket chain found several past marketing research reports discussing the factors driving customer satisfaction for the grocery industry. All these research reports were based on past surveys conducted with general consumers in Singapore. The marketing manager also noticed that most of these reports were written more than 10 years ago. You are to provide suggestions on how the management could make use of the information found in these marketing research reports. Your answers should also include the limitations of using such information. (~400 words)
1. Develop and design research to address a given business scenario
2. Compare the advantages and disadvantages of qualitative and quantitative research techniques
