GJ Coles and his store in Collingwood, Victoria

UNDERSTANDING
MARKET RESEARCH

BACKGROUND
Coles began in the year 1914 under the vision of GJ Coles and his
store, located in Smith Street. Collingwood, Victoria; with the idea to
provide household goods at a lower cost (Colesgroup.com.au, 2019).
This was with the vision to reduce the cost of living for the Australian
families. After the World War II, there were huge numbers of married
women joining the work force, and this increased the demand for fast
foods and delicacies, housed by the store. Coles is now an online
shopping destination, delivering household goods, meat, fish, eggs, dairy
and others, with several retail supermarket stores.

MARKETING RESEARCH
AND 5 STEPS OF MARKET RESEARCH
PROCESS
Market Research is the systemic way of designing, collecting and
interpreting data (Kumar 2019). It helps to solve issues related to particular
marketing problems or resort to advantages associated with marketing
opportunities. Coles collects data from the consumer behaviors like choice of
goods in a consumer’s basket, the repeated purchase of certain goods by the
consumer and their pricing choices guides the company towards selection of
certain goods and commodities in its stores. A popular product choice is kept
in the mind while restocking the stores and websites with goods, in this scenario.

RESEARCH PROBLEM AND OBJECTIVE
The research problem is to look into the diminishing margin of sales for
Coles Supermarket and the ways through which it can counter these.
The objectives of this research are:
• The necessity to know the customer’s needs and expectations
• To understand and adapt according to customer reactions and the
changing patterns in customer purchase
• Looking at the marketing opportunities to introduce a particular
commodity in the market or continue with the popular choices
• Evaluation of the company’s measures for sales or promotions,
which are required for suitable improvisations