Module 3
For a retail bakery outlet that has no experience in pet snacks and that owns a recognition for its bakery products to consumers, the entity should initiate the research process through exploratory research in order to prepare the groundwork first. It is considerable that exploratory research designs a hypothetical research for a theoretical idea and this is the reason that bakery outlet should first understand the market for pet products, existing competitors, and most importantly, how will the consumers perceive a retail bakery that sells bakery products for both pets and humans. By the end of exploratory research, the bakery outlet will have over the top information about the issues discussed above. This will help them to prioritize areas that require statistical research .
While exploratory research allows to create the groundwork and gaining a tentative idea about the factors relating to the pet snack sales, bakery outlet can quantify the data collected in order to gain additional information and not just rely on tentative outlook gathered during exploratory research. Using the tools of descriptive research, the entity will be able to source a statistically inferable data. At this step, the bakery outlet will be able to ascertain the significance of results on the overall population and also the influence of respondent’s opinions and their behavior on sales.
The final research method that can be employed is the Causal Research. Under this process, rather than relying on observational patter of descriptive research, bakery outlet will run an experiment and see how the introduction of pet snacks affects its sales and store footfall. For instance, in order to witness whether the customer’s perception towards the business have changed, the entity can start selling pet snacks at one of its outlets and see the result. If the sales of regular bakery products have dropped following the introduction of the pet snacks, this indicates that the entity will need to set up a new outlet solely for selling pet snacks.
Amongst the three research methods, I believe that causal research will be more suitable. Even though the introduction of pet snacks by a regular bakery outlet is a new concept and demands some observational data using exploratory research. However,assuming a vintage presence of the bakery outlet, I believe that performing experiments as part of causal research will provide direct results to the outlet and let it witness the influence of introduction of pet snacks in the outlet.
Dear April,
While I believe that the majority of our classmates will be coming up with sort similar explanations for three types of research methods, however,it will be interesting to see how many of them confirm that the bakery cannot rely on just one research method and should consider exploratory, descriptive and causal research with equal weightage.
As you may also read that just as you, I have also proposed the similar viewpoint that since the introduction of pet snacks by a bakery outlet is a whole new concept, the subject should start with exploratory research to understand the market sentiments followed by descriptive and causal research.(Malhotra, 2014)
Regards,
Jay
References
FluidsSurvey. (2014, June 3). 3 Types of Survey Research, When to Use Them, and How they Can Benefit Your Organization! Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://fluidsurveys.com/university/3-types-survey-research-use-can-benefit-organization/
Malhotra, N. K. (2013). Marketing Research An Applied Orientation (6th ed.). NJ: Prentice Hall.
Reply#2:Dear Lisa,
I waited until the deadline to see what my classmates think about the appropriate research method for the bakery outlet, and I was elated to see that you have also suggested that we cannot suggest one best research method for the bakery outlet under the given scenario. Indeed, the subject here will need to endow an equal importance to all the three research methods.
In addition to the concluding section, I really enjoyed reading the introduction section of your discussion. (Malhotra, 2014)
Excellent Post!
Regards,
Jay
References
FluidsSurvey. (2014, June 3). 3 Types of Survey Research, When to Use Them, and How they Can Benefit Your Organization! Retrieved January 31, 2016, from http://fluidsurveys.com/university/3-types-survey-research-use-can-benefit-organization/
Malhotra, N. K. (2013). Marketing Research An Applied Orientation (6th ed.). NJ: Prentice Hall.
References
FluidsSurvey. (2014, June 3). 3 Types of Survey Research, When to Use Them, and How they Can Benefit Your Organization! Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://fluidsurveys.com/university/3-types-survey-research-use-can-benefit-organization/
Purposes of Research: Exploratory, Descriptive & Explanatory. (n.d.). Retrieved January 28, 2016, from http://study.com/academy/lesson/purposes-of-research-exploratory-descriptive-explanatory.html
