Unit 3: Introduction to Marketing
By Rais Mauthoor
A Listed Marketers Part 2
Introduction
This report will describe how Coca-Cola uses marketing research to contribute to the
development of its marketing plan and it will use marketing research for marketing
planning. Thirdly, this document will explain the limitations of market research used to
contribute to the development of Coca-Cola’s marketing plans. Lastly, this assignment
will make justified recommendations for improving the validity of the marketing research
used to contribute to the development of Coca-Cola’s marketing plans.
P3 Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing
research to contribute to the development of its marketing
plans
Whenever a business such as Coca-Cola competes in a market and is ready to unleash
a new product, it can do so blindly and guess their customers’ wants and needs or the
business can use market research which will determine the customers’ desires and
necessities more accurately. This is an exceedingly effective method of gathering
crucial information about an organisation’s customers so that the organisation can see
and fill the customers’ wants and needs with negligible unexpected results. As
expected, guesswork is seldom an option when conducting market research because of
the absence of certainty and risks involved. To demonstrate, if Coca-Cola presumes
that customers will enjoy their new beverage, they may discover when the product is
launched that customers prefer their old beverages instead. This situation occurred
when Coca-Cola invented “New Coke” which was designed to replace “Coca-Cola
Classic”, however due to poor market research, the company misinterpreted the facts
and the customers’ opinions. This meant that they eventually failed to meet customers’
preferences and were obligated to bring back “Coca-Cola Classic”. [CITATION Joe15 \l
2057 ] Market research is a priority because if performed correctly, it provides assurance
and determines the chances of success for a particular product.
There are two types of market research, qualitative and quantitative research. Both of
them offer different results and may be utilised to gather data that is specific to what a
business wants to identify. Exemplary research should involve a balanced concoction of
both of these in order to gather as much valuable data as possible. Qualitative research
is complex, subjective and can result in diverse answers. Opinions and experiences can
be extracted from focus groups or interviews in order to accumulate information that is
labeled as qualitative data. To demonstrate a qualitative question, Coca-Cola may ask
their customers “How do you feel when drinking Coca-Cola?”. This question is
qualitative because it stimulates a response that cannot be answered with a simple yes
or no, and it must be elaborated further because it is open-ended. Additionally, the
question does not contribute to any statistics and is very personal to the respondent
which is more evidence that it is qualitative. Qualitative research can be used to identify
By Rais Mauthoor
A Listed Marketers Part 2
Introduction
This report will describe how Coca-Cola uses marketing research to contribute to the
development of its marketing plan and it will use marketing research for marketing
planning. Thirdly, this document will explain the limitations of market research used to
contribute to the development of Coca-Cola’s marketing plans. Lastly, this assignment
will make justified recommendations for improving the validity of the marketing research
used to contribute to the development of Coca-Cola’s marketing plans.
P3 Describe how a selected organisation uses marketing
research to contribute to the development of its marketing
plans
Whenever a business such as Coca-Cola competes in a market and is ready to unleash
a new product, it can do so blindly and guess their customers’ wants and needs or the
business can use market research which will determine the customers’ desires and
necessities more accurately. This is an exceedingly effective method of gathering
crucial information about an organisation’s customers so that the organisation can see
and fill the customers’ wants and needs with negligible unexpected results. As
expected, guesswork is seldom an option when conducting market research because of
the absence of certainty and risks involved. To demonstrate, if Coca-Cola presumes
that customers will enjoy their new beverage, they may discover when the product is
launched that customers prefer their old beverages instead. This situation occurred
when Coca-Cola invented “New Coke” which was designed to replace “Coca-Cola
Classic”, however due to poor market research, the company misinterpreted the facts
and the customers’ opinions. This meant that they eventually failed to meet customers’
preferences and were obligated to bring back “Coca-Cola Classic”. [CITATION Joe15 \l
2057 ] Market research is a priority because if performed correctly, it provides assurance
and determines the chances of success for a particular product.
There are two types of market research, qualitative and quantitative research. Both of
them offer different results and may be utilised to gather data that is specific to what a
business wants to identify. Exemplary research should involve a balanced concoction of
both of these in order to gather as much valuable data as possible. Qualitative research
is complex, subjective and can result in diverse answers. Opinions and experiences can
be extracted from focus groups or interviews in order to accumulate information that is
labeled as qualitative data. To demonstrate a qualitative question, Coca-Cola may ask
their customers “How do you feel when drinking Coca-Cola?”. This question is
qualitative because it stimulates a response that cannot be answered with a simple yes
or no, and it must be elaborated further because it is open-ended. Additionally, the
question does not contribute to any statistics and is very personal to the respondent
which is more evidence that it is qualitative. Qualitative research can be used to identify
