Market Research
Market research is the process of collecting and processing information about the market that a business operates in. Market research gathers information on:
- Market research into customers’ demands is important for business success.
- Insights into customers’ wants and needs can help a business to improve the product, spot market opportunities and stay competitive.
- Insights into overall demand trends can help a business to spot opportunities for growth and potential threats from new products/technology.
Competition
- Market research into competitors can help a business understand the major threats in the market and then prepare the business to deal with these threats.
- Market research for established fashion labels like H&M would identify the threats that come from online platforms like ASOS or Boohoo.
Target market
- Market research into a business’ target market will give the business insights into their customers’ wants and needs and how they are changing over time.
Qualitative and Quantitative Research
Businesses can benefit from both qualitative and quantitative research.
Qualitative research
- Qualitative research generally collects information about opinions and views rather than things that can be quantified.
- For example, research into whether customers think the customer service at Waitrose is good is qualitative research.
Quantitative research
- Quantitative research collects factual information on things that can be quantified and recorded easily.
- For example, research into the number of cans of Coca Cola sold in the UK last year is quantitative research.
1 What is Business?
1.1 Understanding the Nature of Business
1.1.1 Why Businesses Exist
1.1.2 Business Aims & Objectives
1.1.3 Revenue & Costs
1.1.4 A-A* (AO3/4) - Cost Leadership
1.1.5 Profit
1.1.6 End of Topic Test - The Nature of Business
1.2 Understanding Different Business Forms
1.2.1 Sole Traders
1.2.2 Limited Liability
1.2.3 Non-Profit
1.2.4 Franchising
1.2.5 A-A* (AO3/4) - Franchising at Blockbuster
1.2.6 Key Business Terms
1.2.7 Shareholders
1.2.8 End of Topic Test - Different Businesses
1.3 External Environments
1.3.1 External Environments
2 Managers, Leadership & Decision Making
2.1 Understanding Management
2.1.1 Managers
2.1.2 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Blake Mouton
2.1.3 Management Theories
2.1.4 End of Topic Test - Management
2.2 Understanding Management Decision Making
2.2.1 Scientific Decision Making
2.2.2 Intuition Decision Making
2.2.3 Influences on Decision Making
2.2.4 A-A* (AO3/4) - Taylorism & Jack Welch
2.2.5 End of Topic Test - Management Decisions
2.3 Understanding Stakeholders
2.3.1 Stakeholders
3 Decision Making to Improve Marketing Performance
3.1 Decision Making to Improve Marketing Performance
3.1.1 Setting Marketing Objectives
3.2 Understanding Markets & Customers
3.2.1 Market Calculations
3.2.2 Market Research
3.2.3 Market Mapping
3.2.4 Methods of Market Research
3.2.5 Interpreting PED & YED
3.3 Market Segmentation, Targeting & Positioning
3.3.1 Segmentation
3.3.2 Niche & Mass Markets
3.4 Marketing Mix
3.4.1 Marketing Mix
3.4.2 Product Decisions
3.4.3 Pricing Decisions & Price Skimming
3.4.4 Pricing Decisions & Price Penetration
3.4.5 A-A* (AO3/4) - Pricing & Competition
3.4.6 Promotional Decisions
3.4.7 Promotional Decisions 2
3.4.8 Promotional Decisions 3
3.4.9 Distribution Decisions
3.4.10 Distribution Decisions 2
3.4.11 Digital Marketing
3.4.12 Evaluating Digital Marketing
3.4.13 A-A* (AO3/4) - The Marketing Mix & Promotion
4 Decision Making to Improve Operational Performance
4.1 Setting Operational Objectives
4.1.1 Setting Operational Objectives
4.2 Analysing Operational Performance
4.2.1 Operations Data
4.2.2 A-A* (AO3/4) - The Problem with Operations Data
4.3 Increasing Efficiency & Productivity
4.3.1 Capacity
4.3.2 Productivity & Efficiency
4.3.3 Technology & Efficiency
4.4 Improving Quality
4.4.1 Importance of Quality
4.4.2 Measuring & Identifying Quality
4.4.3 Total Quality Management
4.4.4 Evaluating Total Quality Management
4.4.5 A-A* (AO3/4) - Toyota Production System
4.5 Managing Inventory & Supply Chains
4.5.1 Improving the Supply Chain
4.5.2 Inventory
4.5.3 Outsourcing
5 Decision Making to Improve Financial Performance
5.1 Financial Objectives
5.1.1 Setting Financial Objectives
5.1.2 Influences on Financial Objectives
5.2 Analysing Financial Performance
5.2.1 Cash-Flow & Budgets
5.2.2 Break-Even & Profitability Analysis
5.3 Sources of Finance
5.3.1 Internal Sources of Finance
5.3.2 External Sources of Finance
5.3.3 Factors for Financing
5.3.4 A/A* (AO3/4) - Debt
5.4 Improving Cash Flow & Profit
5.4.1 Improving Cash Flow & Profits
6 Improving Human Resource Performance
6.1 Human Resource Objectives
6.1.1 Setting Human Resource Objectives
6.1.2 Human Resource Management
6.2 Analysing Human Resource Performance
6.2.1 Analysing Human Resource Performance
6.2.2 Analysing Human Resource Performance 2
6.2.3 Analysing Human Resource Performance 3
6.3 Improving Organisational Design
6.3.1 Job Design
6.3.2 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Hackman & Oldham's Model
6.3.3 Organisational Design
6.3.4 Human Resource Flow
6.3.5 A-A* (AO3/4) - Amazon & Netflix Org Design
6.4 Improving Motivation & Engagement
6.4.1 Motivating & Engaging Employees
6.4.2 Taylor's Theory
6.4.3 Maslow's Theory
6.4.4 Herzberg's Theory
6.4.5 Different Incentives
6.4.6 Evaluating Incentives
6.5 Improving Employer-Employee Relations
6.5.1 Improving Employer-Employee Relations
6.5.2 A-A* (AO3/4) - The Winter of Discontent
7 Analysing the Strategic Position of a Business
7.1 Mission, Corporate Objectives, Strategy
7.1.1 Business Mission & Corporate Objective
7.1.2 Mission, Corporate Objectives & Strategy
7.1.3 SWOT Analysis
7.1.4 A-A* (AO3/4) - SWOT Analysis
7.2 Financial Ratio Analysis
7.2.1 Financial Ratios
7.3 Overall Performance
7.3.1 Non-Financial Data
7.3.2 Core Competences
7.3.3 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Kaplan and Norton's Balanced Sco
7.3.4 Assessing Business Performance
7.3.5 A-A* (AO3/4) - Assessing Financial Performance
7.4 Political & Legal Change
7.4.1 Political & Legal Change
7.5 Economic Change
7.5.1 Economic Environment
7.5.2 Business Considerations from Globalisation
7.5.3 A-A* (AO3/4) - Interest Rates in the UK
7.6 Social & Technological Environment
7.6.1 Social & Technological Environment
7.6.2 Lifestyle & Technological Environment
7.6.3 Corporate Social Responsibility
7.7 Competitive Environment
7.7.1 Porter's Five Forces
7.7.2 A-A* (AO3/4) - The 5 Forces
7.8 Investment Appraisal
7.8.1 Investment Appraisal
8 Choosing Strategic Direction
8.1 Choosing Areas of Competition
8.1.1 Choosing Areas of Competition
8.1.2 A-A* (AO3/4) - Diversification
8.2 Choosing How to Compete
8.2.1 Choosing How to Compete
8.2.2 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Bowman's Strategic Clock
9 How to Pursue Strategies
9.1 Change in Scale
9.1.1 Growth & Retrenchment
9.1.2 Challenges of Growth
9.1.3 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Growth Models
9.1.4 A-A* (AO3/4) - Diseconomies of Scale
9.2 Assessing Innovation
9.2.1 Assessing Innovation
9.3 Assessing Internationalisation
9.3.1 Internationalisation
9.3.2 Sourcing Resources & Entering Markets
9.3.3 A-A* (AO3/4) - Internationalisation in Guatemala
9.3.4 Managing Internationalisation
9.3.5 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Bartlett & Ghosal's Model
9.3.6 Impact of Internationalisation
9.4 Digital Technology
9.4.1 Assessing Use of Digital Technology
9.4.2 Impact of Digital Technology
10 Managing Strategic Change
10.1 Managing Change
10.1.1 Managing Change
10.2 Managing Organisational Culture
10.2.1 Managing Organisational Culture
10.2.2 (2024 EXAMS ONLY) Hofstede's Model
10.2.3 Organisational Structures
10.3 Managing Strategic Implementation
10.3.1 Managing Strategic Implementation
10.4 Problems with Strategy
10.4.1 Problems with Strategy
10.4.2 A-A* (AO3/4) - Divorce of Ownership from Control
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Market Calculations
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