Research assignment help report on: Bakery shop research
- 1. Executive Summary
This report focuses upon the research proposal made for a small – medium local bakery shop owned & controlled by Phil & Dale Stanley. This report focuses upon the major issue which is being faced by the owners.
The main issue highlighted in this case is regarding to choose among the two alternatives listed i.e. whether to open a gourmet sandwich shop or to further explore the secret of the home baked breads.
This report focuses upon the various sample techniques which should be opted by Granary Bakery in order to increase its profitability keeping in mind the cost as well as the feasibility of both the options mentioned in the case.
The owners of the local bakery shop should take into consideration the positives as well as the negatives of all the sampling techniques & then decide which method to be used, apply in order to expand its operations.
2. Introduction:
The case talks about a small bakery shop which is well managed & controlled by Phil & Dale Stanley with 4-7 employees. The bakery is doing fairly well for the past five years & has been generating nominal amount of profits (McColl, et al 2001).
As the financial status of the bakery was improving, the owners thought of expanding their business & explore their competencies to the fullest (McColl, et al 2001). The major issue being faced by the Granary Bakery was that, where should the bakery expand its operations. There were two alternatives available with them, first was to explore their secret of success i.e. expand the business into home bread mix market while the second option available with them was to open a gourmet sandwich shop in the vacant space available to them just opposite their shop (McColl, et al 2001).
Phil & Dale Stanley were of the opinion that both the options available with them were profitable & had lot of scope of expansion in the years to come. They thought of expanding in only one of the markets as it would be profitable for the bakery (McColl, et al 2001).
- 3. Background of the Research:
The Granary Bakery is a small to medium local bakery shop which is being operated by two owners namely, Phil & Dale Stanley with 4-7 employees depending upon the season as well as the workload in the bakery (McColl, et al 2001).
For the past many years Granary Bakery business has been improving & the financial figures have also been increasing. As the business has been growing at a constant pace, the owners of the bakery have thought of expanding its operations (McColl, et al 2001). There are two options for them to expand i.e. either to focus as well as make the most of the secret of the success or to open a gourmet sandwich shop in the vacant shop available opposite to their shop. The major issue in front of the owners is that, which alternative to be chosen which would help the bakery to earn similar amount of profits. In order to acquire the same, fair marketing research should be done by using various sampling techniques which would help them to decide & take up the right decision to expand its operations (McColl, et al 2001).
- 4. The Management Decision Problem:
The major decision problem identified in this case is regarding the lack of coordination amongst the owners. Both the owners Phil & Dale Stanley suggested two options in order to expand its operations (McColl, et al 2001). Though, both the options mentioned in the case would be profitable in the long run.
But, the owners had to choose only one option amongst the two available options with them. Hence, a research proposal is made in order to see the feasibility of both the options (McColl, et al 2001).
- 5. Problem Identification:
The research problem identified for Granary bakery could be defined as under:
“To expand the operations & look between the two feasible options mentioned above in the case.”
The problem identified & listed above would help Phil & Dale Stanley in order to focus on the major issues & work upon them.
The major objective of this bakery in order to take up the market research refers to:
° Look for better opportunities
° Expand its operations
° Increase the profitability
- 6. Research Design:
6.1 Type of Research: (Descriptive Research)
The type of marketing research technique which should be used by Granary Bakery is the Descriptive research. This type of research would help the bakery in order to conduct both qualitative as well as quantitative research. The methodologies of both type of the research would be used in order to deal with the problems being faced by the bakery (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
This type of research would help the bakery to formulate as well as make a fair analysis on the given problem i.e. in this particular case Granary wants to expand its operations. This would tell in determining the cause & effect relationship amongst the statistics being provided by the respondents (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
The descriptive research would consist of various types of information depending upon the method used (quantitative or qualitative). It would include various type of quantitative information which could be tabulated providing a fair view regarding what does a respondent choose & why does he choose (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
One of the major reasons to use a descriptive research would be to gather data from various means which would be of some use to the Granary Bakery. Granary Bakery would be able to reduce the huge amount of raw data into a relevant piece of information which would be used by the Bakery for solving its main problems (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
This type of research would be able to organize the given data & come to a definite conclusion as to whether the Granary bakery should expand its operations by opening either a gourmet sandwich shop in the adjacent shop or to expand in the home make bread market (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
The descriptive study would aim at discovering out which option to adopt in order to expand its operations. It would also describe the various opt reasons as to why the Granary Bakery should get into any one of the two options mentioned above (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007). The study would also highlight the current state of the ether “what is,” so observational and survey methods are frequently used to collect descriptive data (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007). Studies of this type might describe the current state of the market as well as see whether it would be the right time to expand the business or not & in which segment (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
The descriptive study would help to draw different types of inferences. The descriptive research is unique in the number of variables employed (Creswell, 2003).
The statistics used while conducting a descriptive research would help in the utilization of the data collected & use certain techniques which would help in providing prior analysis regarding the problems being faced by the Granary Bakery (Kotler, Philip & Armstrong, 2007).
6. 2 Type of information:
The information which should be provided by the respondents in order to benefit the owners of the Granary bakery to expand their operations & make high profits to sustain in near future. The information required while conducting the descriptive research would consist the following questions that will help to increase their customer base & increase the demand for the bakery products (Stevens, Wrenn, Sherwood, & Ruddick, 2006).
Some of the relevant information which should be taken out from the respondents & would help Phil & Dale Stanley are as under:
° To know from the customers regarding the growth of the gourmet market in the local area.
° Whether the Granary Bakers should go for expansion? (Stevens, Wrenn, Sherwood, & Ruddick, 2006)
° If yes, then which option to opt for in order to have a secure future?
° If the Granary baker gets into any kind of operation then, will the existing customers come in future (Stevens, Wrenn, Sherwood, & Ruddick, 2006).
° What is the taste & preference of their customers?
° What do the customers feel about their local bakery shop going for expansion?
° Will the customers visit the new gourmet shop? (Stevens, Wrenn, Sherwood, & Ruddick, 2006)
° Which option should the owners choose, Gourmet Shop or to focus primarily on its core business? (Stevens, Wrenn, Sherwood, & Ruddick, 2006)
6.3 Method of data collection:
Data collection refers to one of the most important aspect for any kind of research based study.
In this particular case, Granary Bakery should use two main methods of data collection i.e. Qualitative as well as Quantitative data collection methods (Creswell, 2003).
Since, Granary Bakery would be using the Descriptive Research & it includes both qualitative as well as quantitative methods data collection hence, the bakery should use both the techniques (Creswell, 2003).
Taking into consideration the cost factor some of the techniques which the bakery should use are enumerated as under. They are:
° Interview
° Questionnaire
The two techniques mentioned above are the most cost effective methods which should be used by Granary Bakery in order to see whether to expand its business or not (Creswell, 2003).
Face to face interviews should be conducted amongst the target group mentioned above in the report. The owner of the bakery i.e. Phil & Dale Stanley should conduct small interview & should ask the people where the bakery should expand its operations (Creswell, 2003). The taste as well as the preferences of the target group should be taken into consideration while expanding its operations as they are the ones who would come into their bakery in near future. Interviews would help the owners to get various convincing results. Conducting face to face interviews would also enhance the quality of the data being produced by the respondents who come & visit the Granary bakery shop (Creswell, 2003).
Minimum 40-50 respondents should be targeted & a questionnaire should be framed & circulated them (Castillo, 2009). The questionnaire should take into consideration various type of questions such as whether Granary Bakery should take into consideration the option of expanding its operations or not, if yes, then in which segment, whether there is a scope to grow in the segment mentioned above, etc (Castillo, 2009).
Filling up questionnaire is one of the most effective methods to contact large number of people & ask the same question to variety of population which would help the owners of the bakery for further analysis. It is one of the easiest, simplest ways to create & interpret it (Castillo, 2009). The visitors who come to the bakery are one of the most reliable sources for the owner of the bakery & would answer the question with the best of its ability. The visitors as well as the local people who live in the nearby places would give the honest reply in regards to the same (Castillo, 2009).
The questionnaires formulated by the Granary should consist of the open-ended questions which would help in generating spontaneous data & would help in the better understanding of the demand of the customers (Castillo, 2009).
6.4 Sampling Technique:
Based on the research method i.e. descriptive research the kind of sampling technique which should be used by Granary Bakery is the quota sampling. It is one of the most appropriate method for decide upon the participants who needs to be surveyed (Castillo, 2009). For example in this particular case, the target group would e segmented on the basis of the age group i.e. children between the age group 15-18 years, males & females between the age group of 45 – 60 years. According to the quota sampling, the owner of the bakery would be able to segment its target group into various subsets (Castillo, 2009). In the case of Granary Bakery, quota sampling would the apt sampling technique as the major advantage of such type of sampling method is that it is used when the time is limited, a core sample frame is not readily available & the budget to perform the research is quite tight (Castillo, 2009).
The second best method in order to choose the target group would be with the help of the non random sampling technique. But, with this type of sampling technique the major problem is that it might cause some kind of biasness & the response which would be given by the respondents would not be trustworthy, reliable.
The next best sampling technique which is readily available with the Granary Bakery is to target through the Simple random sampling technique. This technique would mean that each & every individual visiting the bakery would have an equal opportunity to be selected & respond towards the questionnaire as well as the interview questions (Bradley, 2007).
- 7. Limitations or Caveat:
Since the Granary Bakery was on a very small scale the entire operation was being controlled & managed by two owners Phil & Dale Stanley with 4-5 employees. Thus, there are certain limitations attached to it (Bradley, 2007). In order to expand its operations the owner of the Granary Bakery had to conduct different types of the sample surveys which had certain limitations or disadvantages attached to it. Some of the limitations associated with the particular sampling techniques i.e. Random Sampling, Non-Random Sampling & the quota sampling methods (Bradley, 2007).
Some of the limitations attached to the above mentioned sampling techniques are as under:
Random Sampling Technique: The random sampling technique is one of the most times consuming sampling technique which requires lot of time & energy. This technique would add as a limitation for the bakery as the organization is controlled & managed by only two people with 4-5 employees. The major disadvantage with this type of sampling technique is that in case of large amount of population, it would be very difficult to track the target group & conduct such type of survey (Bradley, 2007).Quota Sampling:
The other sampling technique being used by the Granary Bakery refers to the Quota Sampling. Some of the limitations attached with this type of sampling technique are as follows:
The major disadvantage with the Quota Sampling is that since the sample which is being selected as the target group is done on the basis of non-random sampling, hence it would be impossible to measure the sampling error which would be caused. The sample selected for this purpose might not represent the entire population as compared to the other sampling techniques (Bradley, 2007).
- 8. Conclusion:
After discussing & identifying the research problems, management problems as well as the research design, it should be concluded & fair recommendation should be provided to Granary Bakery in order to see the feasibility of the both the options i.e. whether to start a gourmet shop or Granary Bakery should explore its secret which lies in the production of the home baked breads (AECT, 2001).
The various marketing research tools mentioned above in this report would help the owners in order to take up a fair decision as to which option should be chosen to increase its profitability.
Since, it is a small – medium bakery shop hence it should take up the questionnaires as one of the sampling techniques which would help the owners in order to be accomplish its major goal & solving the issue (AECT, 2001). Its current base would help Phil & Dale in order to fill in the questionnaires & act as a deciding factor as to which option to choose in the long run in order to sustain in the local market by increasing its profitability & its scope of operation (AECT, 2001). In total approximately 50 respondents should be chosen by the owners or the employees while they are serving their customers or some people from the local market which would help in the filling up the questionnaires. While questioning the group of people ranging between 15-18 years, 40-60 years would be the apt age group to target upon in order to have a fair idea whether the new plan of action would help the bakery in the long run or not (AECT, 2001). Two different sets of questionnaires should be designed should which would help in measuring the feasibility of both the options.
Using the simple random method, the respondent should be chosen i.e. means that each & every individual would get a fair chance to respond & give his/her views upon the facts available (AECT, 2001).
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