Problem definition

Cartridge World is a global organization that has stores all over; however, over the last three years, the company’s sales and market shares have decreased 5% each year in both the consumer and business markets. As a marketing manager of one of the world’s leading provider of inkjet and toner printer cartridges, I have the responsibility to develop a marketing research plan that will help me to understand the challenge the company is facing. The company is considering introducing a new product to its stores in New York and it faces the problem of how to successfully launch it to increase sales. This paper will provide a detailed outline of the kind of research that would foster the sales and market shares of the company by developing certain level of confidence in the new product and ensure that the operation is successful. The company will increase its sales and market shares by introducing new product in the market, expanding the customer and business markets’ distribution channels and carrying out successful products campaigns.

Information Needs

Market research is essential to an organization because it provides specific information about the target market. Similarly, it acts as a link between the marketer and the consumer. Therefore, in any organization, whenever the target markets are identifiable, it would be necessary to conduct a marketing research. Getting important information from territorial areas is necessary. Using secondary sources of information is cost effective and it would be significant in answering questions (Winer & Dhar, 2011). For instance, if one of the competitors in the location has done a market research, their results could be useful to us. A part form the primary and secondary research, qualitative and exploratory research approach would be necessary.

Research Objectives

The objective of Cartridge World is to foster and expand the distribution of products to its existing customer and business markets. The strategies in this research will revolve around increasing sales and market shares of the company. Cartridge World’s sales and profit will increase if it keeps on distributing high quality products and expanding the nearby markets.

Type of Study

Research design entails a framework that is used to conduct and collect data for the study. Precisely, it entails specific methods and procedures that a researcher will use to get the information required (Winer & Dhar, 2011). The type of study that I will use is exploratory research design. The exploratory research design involves gathering information in unstructured and informal manner. It will help me to narrow my focus, gain insight and learn the basics that will help in understanding the problem.

Test Instrument

For this research, the appropriate research tool is secondary data. It is an appropriate tool because it free and the researcher will only have to find existing data that is applicable to the project (Ostertag, 2007). The method that will be used to access the secondary data is retrieving the company’s financial report. The financial report entails the financial information about the company and this will help in knowing the performance of the company. The following are the secondary data for one of the company’s stores.

(Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d).

(Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d).

(Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d).

Analysis Plan

Data analysis plan entails cleaning, transforming and analyzing the data. The research question is how to successfully launch the new product to increase sales and profit margin of Cartridge World. From the data, the shareholder’s funds have decreased from $24,334 million to $20,399 million between 2013 and 2014 (Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d). In the profit and loss table, the total assets have decreased from $92,550 million to $77,287 million. Similarly, the fixed total assets have declined from $56, 916 million to $51, 308 million between 2013 and 2014 (Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d). The above statistics are appropriate because they are from the company’s website and they represent the financial report of the company.

The hypotheses for this particular research include the following. First, expanding the distribution channels for both the existing customer and business markets increases sales of the new product. Second, carrying out a successful marketing campaign about the new product influences sales and profit margin.

Data Collection

With data collection, the concept involved is primary data and it entails first-hand information that is collected for a specific purpose. For the case of planning primary data collection, we shall make a couple of decisions on research methods, sampling plans and research instruments. Therefore, we shall survey method to gather primary data and it will include asking respondents questions regarding their buying behavior, knowledge and attitude towards the new product. The following are the survey questions.

1. How important is price to you when choosing to buy from Cartridge World?

Extremely important           Quite important          Moderately important           Slightly important                Not at all important

65% chose extremely important, 15% chose quite important, 10% chose moderately important, 5% chose slightly important while 5% chose not at all important.

2. If our new product is available in the market today, how likely will you be to recommend it to your friends?

Extremely likely               Very likely             Moderately likely         Slightly likely Not at all likely

55% chose extremely likely, 20% chose very likely, 15% chose moderately likely, 5% chose slightly likely while 5% chose not at all likely.

3. Have you ever missed your preferred product from our company?

Yes                                      No                                         Undecided

70% chose yes, 25% chose no while 5% chose undecided.

4. Are you satisfied with the accessibility of our store?

Yes                                      No                                         Undecided

35% chose yes, 55% chose no while 10% chose undecided.

5. What is your overall satisfaction about the product the company is offering?

Highly Satisfactory         Satisfactory         Neutral            Unsatisfactory                     Highly Unsatisfactory

30% chose highly satisfactory, 20 chose satisfactory, 35% chose neutral, 10% chose unsatisfactory while 5% chose highly unsatisfactory.

Analysis

The analysis of the data will entail results from the primary sources of data. Therefore, the analysis of the primary data will show how the respondents perceive the products offered by the company.

For the first survey question, the following are the results analysis. 65% chose extremely important, 15% chose quite important, 10% chose moderately important, 5% chose slightly important while 5% chose not at all important.

For question two, 55% chose extremely likely, 20% chose very likely, 15% chose moderately likely, 5% chose slightly likely while 5% chose not at all likely.

For question three, 70% chose yes, 25% chose no while 5% chose undecided.

For question four, 35% chose yes, 55% chose no while 10% chose undecided.

For question five, 30% chose highly satisfactory, 20 chose satisfactory, 35% chose neutral, 10% chose unsatisfactory while 5% chose highly unsatisfactory.

Conclusion

The sales and profit margin defines the overall face of the company. Many companies have failed to prosper because of the continuous decrease in sales and profit margin. The marketing management of Cartridge World needs to act promptly on the strategies that would result to successful launch of the new product in the market. Although it is difficult to successfully employ all the strategies, from the research, some of the solutions to the problem include the following. First, the company should carry out a successful market campaigns about the new product. Second, the company should expand the distribution channels for both the customer and business markets. From the research, it is vividly outlined that the above strategies would help the company to develop consumer confidence on the new product hence increasing sales and profit margin.

Reporting

This paper provides a detailed outline of the marketing research plan for Cartridge World. The company is experiencing decreased sales and profit margin. With the need to introduce a new product in the market, the company is trying to solve the problem of developing consumer confidence in the new product that would then increase the sales and profit margin. The research objective is to expand the distribution of products to existing customers and business markets by providing high quality products. The type of study employed in this research is exploratory research design. This research design is very useful since it allows an individual to narrow his/her focus on the problem and get a glimpse of what it entails.

The research uses both primary and secondary data. The secondary data provide information on the company’s performance. It shows how the shareholder funds have decreased from $24,334 million to $20,399 million between 2013 and 2014. The total fixed asset decreased from $56,916 million to $51,308 million while the total assets declined from $92,550 to $77,287 million (Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited, n.d). With the primary data, I used survey to gather information on the customer’s perception about the product. If the company would expand the distribution channels for both customer and business markets and carry out a successful marketing campaign, then the company would realize a successful launch of a new product.

References

Cartridge World (scarborough) Limited. (n.d). Retrieved June 26, 2016, from http://www.bizdb.co.uk/company/cartridge-world-scarborough-limited-05314642

Winer, R. S. & Dhar, R. (2011). Marketing management (4th ed.). Upper Saddle River, NJ: Prentice Hall.

Ostertag, C. (2007). Identifying market opportunities for rural smallholder producers. Cali: Centro internacional de agricultura tropical (CIAT.

 
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