Marketing Research Proposal

This project is a research proposal that aims to analyze the influence of marketing activities on consumer behaviour, using Zara as a case study. The proposal outlines the research objectives, literature review, methodology, and data analysis plan.

Research Proposal Form
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Tutor
Unit .........................................................................................
Proposed Title ............... This is not an adequate research title – see me to discuss.................................
Section One: Research Title, aim, objectives.
Title : Influence of marketing activity on consumer behaviour.
This is not an adequate research title – see me to discuss
Aim of the research: To analyse the influence of marketing activities on consumer behaviour in
International market - A case study of Zara.
Objectives:
 To develop the understanding about the concept of consumer behaviour.
 To analyze the significance of marketing in context of influencing consumers.
 To identify relationship between marketing and consumer behaviour.
 To suggest the strategies which can be adopted by Zara for influencing consumers in international
market. ?
Section Two: Reasons for choosing this research project
Reason for choosing the research topic
Rationale for selecting the specific topic is that as scholar have interest in developing the
understanding about consumer behaviour. In addition to this, other rationale for choosing the topic is that
researcher want to assist companies in marketing the on right time to the right consumers. Investigator
by conducting investigation process on specific topic intend to help enterprises in determining an
appropriate marketing strategies for influencing customers.
Section Three: Literature sources searched
Literature review
Theme 1: Develop the understanding about the concept of consumer behaviour.
According to the view of Hyun, Gunn and Park,(2019) , Consumer behaviour is termed as the study
that analyse how customers select or buy goods and services in order to satisfy their wants.
According to the view of Martínez-Navarro, Bigné and Torrecilla,(2018), consumer behavior can be
defined as a study related to the way an individual select, purchase, use and dispose products or services.
The author Tang and Hu (2018), argues that the actions of consumer in market place. As per the opinion of
Nguyen, de Leeuw and Dullaert, (2018), consumer behavior can be referred to as the way an individual
make decision for spending the available resources for consuming specific item offered by company.
As per the study conducted by author Usman and Okafor (2019), Advertisement plays significant
role in influencing consumer to buy specific product offered by an enterprise. The author Suki and Suki,
(2019), argues that market campaign organized by firm influence customer to make purchase.
Theme 2: Analyse the significance of marketing.
As per Shareef, Mukerji, and Islam, (2019), marketing is a significant process as it helps
organisation to sell products and services and make money. It has also been stated that marketing leads in
establishing long term relationship between customers and organisations. According to the views of Chon,
(2015), marketing is set of different institutions and a activity that aims at creating, delivering,
communicating and exchanging various offerings. It also provides value to different stakeholders such as,

clients, customers, partners or whole society which has positive influence on consumer behaviour.
Whereas, Palmer, (2017) argues that marketing involves various activities such as targetting audience,
doing research, using marketing mix techniques and also making public relations which helps an
organisation in influencing people to buy products or services. . This is an ongoing process through which
organisation transforms needs and wants of target markets into profits and revenue. Marketing process
involves various steps and procedures that leads to create employment as well.
As per the opinion of Palmer, (2017), marketing is not only selling the goods and services but it is a
specialized activity that encompasses whole business. The author Hyun, Gunn and Park (2019) argues
that, Significance of marketing is that it effectively meets needs and wants of customers and provide value
for their money. Marketing is important and essential process which is responsible for identifying needs
and wants of customers then anticipating and effectively satisfying customers requirements and
developing profits. According to the perception of Pantano, Priporas, and Migliano,(2019), Marketing
plays important role in maintaining and improving standard of living of the community. Marketing
process ensures to make available supply of products and services at reasonable costs which raises
standard of living within society.
Theme 3: Identify relationship between marketing and consumer behaviour.
The author Pantano, Priporas and Migliano, (2019)stated that marketing concepts is used by
organisation basically to promote and sell their products and services to the customers. According to the
view of Jaman and Anshari,(2019), consumer behaviour is termed as an act of consumers and their
response in such environment. The author states that Marketing is that process, which makes customer
buy the product that is offered by them which also leads in meeting their requirements to a large extent.
Theme 4: Suggesting strategies that can be adopted by Zara for influencing customers in International
market .
According to Gubíniová, Bartáková and Brtková, (2019) Social media is the best marketing strategy
that can be used by Zara this is because today's customers are completely based on internet and social
media. Therefore, Zara must promote their products and services on Facebook or Twitter as they are
termed as the most trending social media sites nowadays. As per the view of Hyun, Gunn and Park,(2019),
the strategy that Zara can adopt is to create video tutorials. As YouTube is termed as the second largest
search engine in the world behind Google so this will be the best one that can be adopted which will lead
them in achieving huge profit and business may reach the boost.
Ok – but what about globalisation ?
Section Four: Activities and timescales (Gantt chart) - Just 8 weeks ?

Appendix
Research Proposal Form (contd.)
Milestone one: ..........................LO2...............................................................
Target date (set by tutor): ...............31 st March 2019..........................................................................
Milestone two: ..........................LO3...............................................................
Target date (set by tutor): ................15 th April 2019.........................................................................
Section Five: Research approach and methodologies
Research approaches and Methodologies
Research methods are basically the different strategies adopted by scholar for collection,
interpretation and analysis of information. It is can be also considered to be as a process which is
conducted by investigator for accomplishing set goals. The different types of approaches, techniques,
philosophy utilized by scholar in present study in order to achieve desired results are :
Research design type: The type of research is basically a study which assist researcher in solving the
specific problem. Two main types of research which scholar conduct is qualitative and quantitative. The
selection of research design type is completely based on the nature of topic or subject matter (Bell,
Bryman and Harley, 2018). As in present study considering the nature of problem, investigator has chosen
to conduct the qualitative research. Scholar will execute qualitative research as it helps them in developing
the relationship between different components of research. It also assists them in identifying the effect of
marketing on consumer behavior.
Research nature design : It is particularly a framework of techniques which can be utilized by researcher
for performing various activities during investigation procedure. Selection of the best research nature
design is very much crucial in order to combine various elements of study in logical manner (Glesne,
2015.). The main four types of research nature design are experimental, descriptive, exploratory and
experimental. Researcher in present study will use exploratory research nature design. Scholar has
selected exploratory research nature design as it assist investigator in developing the good understanding
about problem.
Research approach : this is plan created by scholar on the basis of which different activities during the
time of research will be executed. Two basic type of research approaches are inductive and deductive
(Kumar, 2017). Researcher in present study will use inductive research Approach. Reason for which
scholar has selected inductive research for present study is that it permits scholar to form an early tentative
hypothesis that can be explored. Other reason is that inductive research approach supports researcher in
developing questionnaire.
Research philosophy : It perception of different people about the techniques which can be used by
researcher in order to gain knowledge about the topic. Research philosophies specify the ways for
conducting the investigation in systematic manner. Two fundamental research philosophy are Positivism
and interpretivism (Mackey and Gass, 2015). In context of present investigation process, scholar will use
interpretative research philosophy. Reason for which investigator has selected the interpretivism
Research philosophy is that scholar perceive that it will help them in ensuring validity in results.
Sampling: It is basically a subset of individual selected from wide population belong to similar
characteristics. This research activity will be executed by scholar in present study for collecting
information quickly as well as in efficient manner (Neelankavil, 2015). The different sampling techniques

are random , cluster, systematic, stratified, participative, purposive etc. Investigator in present study will
select 20 permanent customers of Zara using the purposive sampling technique. Reason for selecting
customer as participants in research is that they are people who can provide complete as well as detailed
information about the influence of marketing activities of firm in their behavior.
Data collection : Investigator in present study will collect facts as well as figures from both primary and
secondary source. Questionnaire technique will be used by scholar for gathering data related to the topic.
Rationale for which scholar has use questionnaire method is that it enables researcher to gather data
quickly (Quinlan, Babin and Griffin, 2019). In addition to the secondary data will be gathered using
articles, journals, magazines, newspaper etc.
Data analysis: It is procedure of inspecting facts in order to extract meaning information. Thematic
analysis is the techniques which will be used by investigator in present study. Reason for which
investigator is planning to use Thematic analysis is that it helps scholar in determining the pattern of
responses . Table and graphs will be used for presenting the data, as it supports researcher in making
research report presentable and understandable.
Comments and agreement from tutor
Comments (optional): It is not clear that this is your work – see me to discuss.
Iconfirmthattheprojectisnotworkwhichhasbeenorwillbesubmittedforanotherqualificationandis
appropriate.
Agreed: .................................................................................... (name) .................................................................................... date) ......................................................
Comments and agreement from project proposal checker (if applicable)
Comments (optional):
I confirm that the project is appropriate.
Agreed: .................................................................................... (name) .................................................................................... date) ......................................................
Martínez-Navarro, J., Bigné, E., and Torrecilla, C., 2018. The influence of virtual reality in e-
commerce. Journal of Business Research.
Tang, T. and Hu, P., 2018. Quantitative standard of promotion strategy and analysis on the influence of
consumer purchase behavior. Cluster Computing, pp.1-7.
Nguyen, D.H., de Leeuw, S. and Dullaert, W.E., 2018. Consumer behaviour and order fulfilment in online
retailing: A systematic review. International Journal of Management Reviews, 20(2), pp.255-276.
Usman, A. and Okafor, S., 2019. Exploring the relationship between social media and social influence.
In Leveraging Computer-Mediated Marketing Environments (pp. 83-103). IGI Global.

Suki, N.M. and Suki, N.M., 2019. Correlations between awareness of green marketing, corporate social
responsibility, product image, corporate reputation, and consumer purchase intention. In Corporate
Social Responsibility: Concepts, Methodologies, Tools, and Applications (pp. 143-154). IGI Global.
Bell, E., Bryman, A. and Harley, B., 2018. Business research methods. Oxford university press.
Glesne, C., 2015. Becoming qualitative researchers: An introduction. Pearson.
Kumar, V.D., 2017. Qualitative research: The philosophy behind the road less taken. Journal of Current
Research in Scientific Medicine. 3(2). pp.134
Mackey, A. and Gass, S. M., 2015. Second language research: Methodology and design. Routledge.
Neelankavil, J. P., 2015. Primary Data Collection: An Introduction to Conclusive Research. In International
Business Research (pp. 146-163). Routledge.
Quinlan, C., Babin, B., and Griffin, M., 2019. Business research methods. South Western Cengage.
Shareef, M.A., Mukerji, B., Dwivedi, Y.K., Rana, N.P. and Islam, R., 2019. Social media marketing:
Comparative effect of advertisement sources. Journal of Retailing and Consumer Services, 46, pp.58-69.
Pantano, E., Priporas, C.V. and Migliano, G., 2019. Reshaping traditional marketing mix to include social
media participation: evidence from Italian firms. European Business Review, (just-accepted), pp.00-00.
Jaman, S.F.I. and Anshari, M., 2019. Facebook as Marketing Tools for Organizations: Knowledge
Management Analysis. In Dynamic Perspectives on Globalization and Sustainable Business in Asia (pp.
92-105). IGI Global.
Hyun, H., Gunn, F. and Park, J., 2019. The influence of social capital through social media: a study of the
creation of value in shopping behaviour. The International Review of Retail, Distribution and Consumer
Research, pp.1-18.
Gubíniová, K., Bartáková, G.P. and Brtková, J., 2019. Green Markets and Their Role in the Sustainable
Marketing Management. In Smart Technology Trends in Industrial and Business Management (pp. 281-
290). Springer, Cham.
Chon, K.S., 2015. Traveler destination image modification process and its marketing implications. In
Proceedings of the 1990 Academy of Marketing Science (AMS) Annual Conference (pp. 480-482).
Springer, Cham.
Palmer, D.E., 2017. Conceptions and Misconceptions of Virtue in Marketing. Handbook of Virtue
Ethics in Business and Management, pp.1027-1035.