BBA221 Marketing Research

Firms and institutions are not in the position of targeting total markets to support the particular products and services. For each section of the marketplace that a researcher needs to target, a market mix should be created. In research, it is costly to attempt making a market mix in support of each targeted market. However, firms often are fond of cutting such targets into particular “segments" of the marketplace, which an organization is positioned strategically towards becoming successful when targeted. Again, segmentation varies as per the targeted market which is being studied. Studying Bachelor's degrees which are moist demanded amongst high school students assist program marketing manager in comprehending why parents are likely to register their children in specific degree programs. To recognize the targets which are likely to be profitable for institutions, the marketers utilize market segmentation (Hague, Hague, and Morgan 2014). Market segmentation describes the process of distinguishing, recognizing, and assessing market layers when identifying the targeted markets. This research will take into consideration the two forms of market segmentation for this study. These would include:

Demographic segmentation- in this category, the school-going ages will be targeted for this research. Parents having students in the various learning institution would be targeted for this market research. This kind of market segmentation is expected since it is easier to get demographic information from the targeted participants for the study.  The researcher could efficiently utilize census data in establishing regions in the city where there is high-income income capable of registering their children in the various degree programs. In this case scenario, the research area has been segmented by the use of income and age. The level of income impacts the consumers' need as well as dictating their power of consuming the service (Collins and Dent 2018)

Behavioral segmentation- this is anchored on the behaviors as exhibited by the respondents on the services offered.  In this case, Bachelor's degree programs are targeted toward students’ concern of landing jobs after finalizing the schedule.  In this category, the study would include educational stakeholders such as board of management, program marketers, and the government.  The board of management of institutions will know the degree programs that are supposed to be taught in the university. The government will able to known and fund programs that are of value for both learners and institutions. Program marketers are targeted in this study as they will get informed about various programs which can be marketed to reach the intended audience during this market research. The two segmentation will assist in outlining the benefits and demography of the targeted population.

Sampling methodology to use in the research

Due to the research question under this study, a random sampling technique will reach the targeted population. Simple random sampling is a probabilistic typology.  Since the data required is available in the outline platform, an online random sampling method will be ideal for the project. The research targets university service consumers’ audience and respondents will be sampled to undertake the operation. Sampling is necessary for the study process when it comes to collecting data in the study. The researcher opted for only respondents due to the constrained research budget available for this study. Thus, selection is essential in minimizing the resources used in operation as well as time. In this type of sampling, the targeted population gets selected only by chance.

Furthermore, each respondent has equal chances of being selected. Sampling ensured that the respondents employed in this research online would only be chosen by chance to meet the required targeted samples. A finite sample size will be used for this study. A simple random sample is favored over other methods as it lacks bias. Individuals making up the larger group of the sample are drawn randomly. Each individual would be having a similar probability of being chosen for the study. This creates a balanced subset that carries a more excellent perspective of representing the larger population (Beaver 2012).  Again, simple random sampling comes with some simplicity. It shows that the generation of a simple random sample is not that complex as matched with other methods. The individuals within the subset will be selected randomly without following additional steps within the study. However, the main demerit which comes with using this approach is the difficulty when it comes to the accessibility of the complete list of the population is demanding. Using this approach, an accurate statistical measure of a larger population could only be attained whenever the whole population is studied.   

Based on the objectives and aims of this research, the researcher will apply cross-sectional analysis designed paramount importance of using a design in the course of study to give room to validity, reliability and capture reality in the research process. The cross-sectional outline is commonly used in many scientific and educational research studies to avail information of a particular variable in that specific moment. Therefore, it means that variables used to seek knowledge that refers to a specific time perfectly fit this design. For instance, in this case, the study's objective was to determine the effectiveness of Bachelor's degrees on job demand.  According to this design, data will be used to identify the competitive position of various courses in the job market industry.

A cross-sectional design can also be called a hybrid system as it allows for both a descriptive and explanatory approach. One of the reasons why the researcher utilized cross-sectional design was due to the mixed design's ability. The descriptive approach helped unveil information about the characteristics of students who have done various courses in terms of the job market.

 Another advantage of using a cross-sectional design is that it allows for collecting data with numerous variables simultaneously. Variable such as age, gender, and places will be collected and used in the research. Additionally, this research design was used because it is reliable and can easily trust data. The researcher cannot manipulate data; therefore, it conducts zero influence on mainly targeted information the way they are collected in the fields. Despite research data being termed as always biased, information concerning variables is typically unbiased.

On the other hand, the researchers will use an explanatory approach to explain the correlational characteristics between prevailing variable cause-effect associations between the variable under study. The approach aids researcher in supporting the limitation of this design in explanations of the Cause-effects of the variables. Therefore, the use of the survey is essential in this study, as the quantifiable data will be collected in this study.

Qualitative Questions

1. What is the name of your preferred degree program, and why do you like it
2. Tell us more about the degree program
3. What do you like most about the preferred degree program?

Quantitative Questions

1. What is the relationship between your degree program and the current job market?
2. How much are you anticipating to be paid upon finishing the degree program supposed you land a job?
3. Are you satisfied with your degree program?

Quality control method for the validity of results obtained.

Validity of the results will be ensured through analyzing results and rechecking questions that have been filled and returned by the respondent. Quality control charts shall as well be used in proving the validity of the results obtained.  After the target group has been sampled, data collection will commence (Mariampolski 2021). In this research, the use of the survey method of data collection was the most preferred. Since the required data was only available online, the researcher had no physical contact with the respondent. Therefore, written surveys were sent through mails to the respondents.

A semi-structured questionnaire has been chosen as the best method to collect data from the respondents as it allowed for the construction of both open-ended questions and close-ended questions. The same items were sent to each email to be answered by the sampled emails.  The questionnaire will be designed and passed to each of the university population. The open-ended questions aim to target information about characteristics that require the respondent to describe an event or action (McGivern 2019). At the same time, close-ended questions will seek information that needed a yes or no response.

The respondents will receive the questionnaires and fill them. After filling in the questionnaire, the respondents will send the questionnaire back through email. This is the most effective way since physical contact is not considered an option in data collection. Notably, the respondents are considered part of the data research and are motivated to provide accurate information because they also want to know about the investigation findings. Furthermore, a study permit will be given to each respondent via email. The questionnaire document will summarize the objectives of the research and ensure respondents of the confidentiality of their answers. This acted as a motivation of truth, as the respondents felt that they are part of the research. The marketer promised to email them back on the findings of the case study.

The timing of the data collection will be three days. Due to the resources available for the research, it will be fitting to give respondents three days before they can fill in the questionnaire and email it back. Three days are suggested to be enough to get answers from most of the respondents. Therefore, the whole data collection process is expected to take six days until the actual data will be successfully collected and the findings analyzed. Lack of funds plays a part in collecting the data following a strict schedule.

Furthermore, identifying and allocating the target group is time-consuming. Researchers only left with three days to give to the respondents before each one of them could present their answered questionnaires. Also, a uniform set of questions will be sent to each respondent since the researcher will only interested in information from stakeholders rather than shareholders' higher education.

The data collected shall be tested for validity to evaluate the quality of the research. This will be mainly used to measure how well the method used to collect data presented the results leading to the findings. The validity of the method used shall be vital as it elaborated on the primary intention of the research. The researcher intended to determine the effectiveness of Bachelor's degree programs in the job market.

To ensure the validity of the research questions, each questionnaire will be rechecked before the final printing to ensure that the questions asked are relevant to the research questions and objectives. Another way to confirm the validity of the method is by going through the answers on the questionnaires and comparing them with the established theories in the literature review part. This will ensure that the results can demonstrate how the data is assessed.

Additionally, the relationship that exists between the data collected is replicable. This will be done by resending some of the sampled questionnaires to a different group, giving their answers regarding the topic under study. This procedure ensures that the data collected are related, and if another survey with the same objectives and aims is carried out, the result will be similar or closely related (Zaltman 2017).

Validity can, therefore, be divided into two sub-categories that are, content validity, which ensures that the content of the questionnaire covers all necessary parts and range of the research objectives and aims. Another sub-category of the truth is face validity, which shows how the questions' scope seems on the surface. The last sub-category of reality is criterion validity, which is a measure of outcome using two techniques known to the researcher. Thus, the methods used to measure the validity of the results would be by analyzing the product from the respondents and rechecking the questionnaires before emailing them to the respondents.

References

Beaver, W.H., 2012. Perspectives on recent capital market research. The Accounting Review, 77(2), pp.453-474.

Collins, D.W. and Dent, W.T., 2018. A comparison of alternative testing methodologies used in capital market research. Journal of accounting research, pp.48-84.

Hague, P.N., Hague, N. and Morgan, C.A., 2014. Market research in practice: a guide to the basics. Kogan Page Publishers.

Mariampolski, H., 2021. Qualitative market research. Sage.

McGivern, Y., 2019. The practice of market research: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Zaltman, G., 2017. Rethinking market research: Putting people back in. Journal of Marketing Research, 34(4), pp.424-437.

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