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Qualitative Marketing Research Individual Assignment
Sumit Kumar Pramanik. Roll- 12PGP383. Sec- A.umit Kumar Pramanik. Roll- 12PGP383. Sec- A.
Retailers test new store formats for over crowded urban markets
Research Problem:
What are the still unmet needs and desires of customers when it comes to retail shopping in the urban markets?
Research objectives:
To propose new store formats that can be set up by retailers to increase penetration in the urban markets. To recommend ways in which the current retail store formats can be modified to make them more profitable by increasing penetration in the urban markets.
In-depth Interview: This may be costly for your research both in time and money. Also it is store features that we are researchring so it would give ample scope for respondents to express their views without any
inhibition.
Observation: You may like to choose those stores which are considered as well designed in view of experts or consumers. This provides us with some benchmark to meet or probe the respondent better. Projective Techniques: What specifically would you do here?
This method can also be useful for correlating the data obtained about the respondents opinions through FGDs. In-depth interviews of all the stakeholders involved including retailers, salesmen, suppliers, etc. Will help us greatly in understanding various aspects associated with urban shopping. This is arguably the best research methodology for identifying new business opportunities. Since in this research, we are more concerned with the opportunities than the present condition, this is an appropriate method. This is also a good method for validating the data obtained through FGDs and in-depth interviews. Observation will also help us in studying the respondents in actual shopping settings. Hence, it will be more direct and transparent way of data collection. Our research is related to the psychology of an individual in terms of his inherent attitudes, biases and judgements about the present retail shop formats. These details of the psychological realm can be effectively studied using projective techniques. This technique will also allow us to take data from a larger sample size which would not be possible in the case of FGDs and in-depth interviews. This is a very interactive and interesting way of data collection and hence, there will be a relaxed and whole-hearted participation for this method. This will help us in gathering useful data.
Respondent Profiling:
Respondent profiling should be done in the following five stages: 1) Setting: Since this study is carried out for consumer needs and desires in the context of retail shopping in the urban market, the setting for this study should be urban market. This should be our focus area for further segmentation. 2) Demographics: For this aspect, two age groups should be taken under consideration. This has been done because the shopping needs for the age group 16-28 years would be hugely different from that for the age group of 29-40 years. 3) Monthly Shopping Expenditure: For this purpose, the respondents should be further segmented based on their monthly expenditure on retail shopping. This will also give us an indicator of the ticket value for each purchased item. 4) Shopping frequency: This should be considered because shopping willingness will have a good correlation with shopping needs of an individual. Here, two frequency groups, one <=10 times and one>10 times per month, has been taken for consideration.
5) Organized/Unorganized retail shopping: This segmentation has been done by keeping in mind the shopping preferences of different people. The needs and desires of people going to a kirana shop would be hugely different than those of people going to malls and supermarkets.
Urban shoppers
16-28 years
29-40 years
It is necessary that a maximum variation sampling is done where each of these segments are represented by some respondents. Only then can we get responses which can be used by businesses to design new store formats. If a company has already decided to target a specific segment, then it will be interested in the data obtained from the respondents of that segment only. Within these segments, random sampling should be done to avoid any biases that might creep in the research study. Extreme sampling would involve including respondents who either never go for retail shopping or go for it unusually often. This type of sampling will help us to compare and validate our results and predict whether our recommendations would have any desired effect.
Projective Techniques
The respondents will be shown cartoons containing two characters where one character will asking questions like: o It seems you love this store very much. Whenever we come here, you seem to be very happy. Why is it so? o You know this store can be much better than what it is now. You know how? o You see, a person may have needs or desires or whims which no store fulfils presently. Do you have anything of that sort? Then the respondent will be asked to fill in the reply of the second character.
In-depth Interview
Observation Projective
Techniques
the case of FGDs. These data can then be collated and studied for common patterns among the responses. The psychological aspects of sentence construction by the respondents should also be taken under consideration.