Applied Research and Development Report: Gym Marketing Strategies

This report presents an applied research study focusing on student attitudes towards exercise and the implications for gym marketing strategies, specifically using Body Shape Gym as a case study. The research encompasses multiple tasks, beginning with a background and literature review on student exercise habits and gym marketing. The methodology involves a qualitative research approach, including the use of questionnaires for data collection and thematic analysis to identify key themes and patterns. The report outlines research questions, objectives, and project planning tools. Furthermore, it explores the differences between qualitative and quantitative research, ethical considerations, and data analysis techniques. Findings address student attitudes, challenges faced by the gym, and strategies for marketing services to students, culminating in recommendations for enhancing gym marketing efforts and addressing ethical issues. The report concludes with a reflection on the research, implications for stakeholders, and provides references and an appendix.

APPLIED RESEARCH AND
DEVELOPMENT

Table of Contents
TASK 1............................................................................................................................................4
Background of research...............................................................................................................4
Literature review..........................................................................................................................4
TASK 2............................................................................................................................................5
Ideas that help in selection of suitable research topic..................................................................5
Attributes of research topic..........................................................................................................6
Research question & objectives...................................................................................................6
Different stages used to carry out research..................................................................................6
Project planning tools..................................................................................................................7
........................................................................................................................................................10
TASK 3..........................................................................................................................................11
Difference between qualitative and quantitative research.........................................................11
B.................................................................................................................................................11
Interpretivism paradigm are adopted.........................................................................................12
Research method used to carry out research..............................................................................12
Population, sample and sampling strategy.................................................................................12
Data collection method and sample research tool......................................................................13
How researcher will collect data................................................................................................13
Ethical issues in research...........................................................................................................13
Ethical problems relevant to research proposal.........................................................................13
Ways to address ethical problems in research process to assure that it is ethical......................13
TASK 4..........................................................................................................................................14
Data analysis..............................................................................................................................14
TASK 5 .........................................................................................................................................21
Reflection on issues that emanate from this research................................................................21
Implications of research findings on stakeholders.....................................................................22
CONCLUSION..............................................................................................................................22
REFERENCES..............................................................................................................................23
Appendix-......................................................................................................................................25

TASK 1
Background of research
Exercise are now considered to be the biggest craze for youth, reason behind this is
aggression and smartness youth needs. Healthy gymnastic body reflects good personality and
also makes people stronger. In recent era, students drive towards exercise, they think it is the best
way to keep fit. The attitude of student regarding this activity is positive, it is beneficial for them,
one of the most essential advantage of exercise is stress relief. Working up sweat will help
mange mental and physical stress (Gocłowska and Piątkowska, 2017). It also increases
concentrations of norepinephrine, it's a chemical that moderate human brain response to tension.
The present research is based on Body shape Gym and health club, located in Bangladesh.
With the help of this study, it is makes things easy for researcher and other people to
analyse benefits of exercise.
The purpose of this research is to identify the attributes of students towards exercise that
helps to marketing manager better market their gyms.
Literature review
Students attitude towards exercise-
Exercise is the key elements of energy booster, regular physical activity will improve
muscles stamina and boost endurance. In view point of Dyrbye, Satele and Shanafelt, (2017)
students want to keep fit and healthy for longer because they always seek to take part in games or
other activities during academic and professional career. Exercise and physical activity will
undertake by them regularly, in order to keep themselves active. Between age of 18 to 25
individual are showing their interest towards exercise, positive attribute of students in context of
physical activity will beneficial for gym as it helps to increase their profitability and productivity
rather than before. While academic career, students focus on health and fitness which is highly
beneficial for them and psychological well-being. Gym exercise are now in trend, students are
more interested in fitness. On the other hand ZHANG and et.al., (2018)stated that few students
are not in favour of exercise they consider this as time-consuming activity.
Challenges faced by firm while determining the attributes of students towards exercise-
It is very difficult for company to determine the attribute of people towards exercise, they
face a lot of challenges and issues while conducting research on the basis of above statement.
Lack of honesty is one of the biggest challenge that impact on findings and further procedure of

identify students attributes in regard to exercise. Answers are not taken during research
procedure, no one will be able to response honestly, students give their statement less effectively
that impact on findings and final conclusion. Snyder and Estridge, (2017) contradict that instead
of above challenge there are more different barriers occur in way of company when they
determine attributes of students towards exercise in gym. Large amount of opinions create
difficult in order to identify the attitudes of individual regarding physical activity. While
obtaining different view of students, it is impossible to understand the actual perception for
exercise in mind of people, it creates confusion.
Strategies for marketing gym services to target market-
According to Horvat and et.al., (2018) marketing is the action of selling goods and
promoting services, including advertising and market research. In order to promote gym facilities
and products within market place in order to gain attention of consumers specially students,
marketing manager will choose the best methods or strategy that spread information effectively
among group of people. User friendly websites is the best way for promoting brand in target
market, manager create their website and add some essential & in-depth info about their
business, which is easy for consumers to read and gain knowledge. Smith and McGannon,
(2018) highlighted that social media is better than other methods of marketing.
TASK 2
Ideas that help in selection of suitable research topic
While conducting research, researcher identify some essential elements which is
beneficial for their investigation. They generate 3 ideas in order to address research gap because
it is very important to make this work more effective and suitable for reader. Survey, interviews
and questionnaire are the three main ideas that will help researcher to reduce research gap.
Survey is defined as investigation method used for gathering information from pre-
defines unit of respondents to obtain data and insights on this topic. To address research gap,
survey is the best way allow researcher to gather more data for making their investigation more
powerful and appropriate. With the help of survey, they will be able to find out more ways to
determine attributes of students towards exercise.
Questionnaire also drive towards same, it also helps in reducing gap between previous
and current research and make it perfect. It is set of written or printed questions with choice of
responses, devised for purpose of addressing research gap.

Interviews conducted by researcher that helps them to identify methods and techniques to
make research beneficial for other with proper findings.
Attributes of research topic
Questionnaire is one of the idea chosen for this study which is best to research question.
It is considered as research instrument consisting of range of questions for purpose of collecting
data from number of respondents. By creating good questionnaire, research collect a lot and in
depth info that directly relate to research question and allow obtaining appropriate response
regarding attributes of students towards exercise. With the help of this idea, researcher is able to
analyse attitudes of people in context of above activity. It is totally the best approach or idea to
gather data, as compared to other methods like observation or interviews. Under qualitative
research method, questionnaires is prepared by researcher in order to address research questions
and find out their answer in systematic manner. Replied related to research questions through
this idea will receive very quickly, in this case there is no need to visit participants personally.
Compared to other ideas, questionnaire is regarded as cheaper and useful, where repetitive
information will collect at continuous interval.
Research question & objectives
Objectives-
 To identify the attitudes of students towards exercise
 To analyse the challenges faced by Body Shape Gym & health club while determine
students attitude in context of exercise.
 To determine strategies for marketing company services to students
 To recommend how students attitudes can be analysed to market gym services
Research questions-
 What is the attribute of students towards exercise?
 What challenges Body shape gym & health club faced while identifying students attitude
towards exercise?
 What are the strategies marketing manager use for marketing gym services to students?
Different stages used to carry out research
Literature review-
After choosing research topic, researcher will learn more about subject under research, to
do this they review literature related to research aim. It will help to provide foundational data

about the attributes of students towards exercise and challenges faced by company at the time of
determine the same things among group of d obtain better conclusion at end of work with
appropriate findings.
Identifying population-
20 students participate in this research, researcher chose 20 respondents for this study in
order to collect info related to chosen topic. The sample size of population is small, participants
age is between 18 to 25.
Questionary-
In this stage research create questionnaire on the bases of above research topic that relate
to research questions. It will provide information regarding students attributed towards exercise,
that researcher will use to draw findings at last.
Data collection-
Data will collect related to above topic through secondary and primary research methods
used by researcher, as it help to save time and have a lot of info about students attributes towards
exercise.
Data analysis-
Thematic methods is used by researcher in order to conduct research and analysing data,
it is used to identify common themes, ideas and topic of meaning that come up repeatedly.
Conclusion-
From above, analysis it has been concluded that under qualitative research methodology
researcher used thematic data analysis method and through questionnaire they gather detail info
about subject of study.
Project planning tools
Task
Mode
Task Name Duration Start Finish Predecessors
Manually
Schedule
d
Selection of
specific topic
1 day Wed 12/18/19 Wed 12/18/19
Auto
Schedule
d
Formulation aim
and objectives for
research study
3 days Thu 12/19/19 Mon 12/23/19 1

Auto
Schedule
d
developing a brief
plan
2 days Tue 12/24/19 Wed 12/25/19 2
Auto
Schedule
d
Research methods
selection
2 days Thu 12/26/19 Fri 12/27/19 3
Auto
Schedule
d
Secondary research 1 day Mon 12/30/19 Mon 12/30/19 4
Auto
Schedule
d
Sending
questionnaire for
collection of data
3 days Tue 12/31/19 Thu 1/2/20 5
Auto
Schedule
d
Concluding
findings and
recommending
solutions
2 days Fri 1/3/20 Mon 1/6/20 5,6
Auto
Schedule
d
Formatting 3 days Tue 1/7/20 Thu 1/9/20 7
Auto
Schedule
d
Taking feedback 2 days Tue 1/7/20 Wed 1/8/20 2,3,4,5,6,7
Auto
Schedule
d
Doing changes as
per the feedback
provided
3 days Thu 1/9/20 Mon 1/13/20 9
Auto
Schedule
d
Final submission 2 days Tue 1/14/20 Wed 1/15/20 9,10

TASK 3
Difference between qualitative and quantitative research
Basis Qualitative research Quantitative research
Meaning It is the method that helps to
understand human nature in order to
think how people think and feel
It is a method that used numerical
data and some hard facts by using
specific statistical and
mathematical technique (Bernard,
2017).
Nature Holistic Particularistic
Approach Subjective Objectives
Research type Exploratory Conclusive
Objective To explore the ideas which are used
in ongoing process (Brannen, 2017)
To determine the relationship
between variables
Methodologies Data are collected through
participants observation as well as
interviews
Data are collected through
numerical comparison and
statistical interference.
For this current report qualitative research approach is used that helps in depth analysis
and reach the defined aim and objectives in better manner. Further, through this method,
researcher also interpret the findings in better manner and also conduct the research in more
precise manner as well. Hence, using qualitative research, researcher develop graphs, tables In
order to look it more presentable and effective.
B
Ontology: It is the philosophical study which I being concern with the nature existence
and reality. It is consider one of the major part of philosophy which is actually deals with the
questions that are concern with entities and this is related to hierarchies as well.
Epistemology: It is the theory of knowledge with regards to study's scope and validity.
Therefore, it is the investigation of nature and scope of knowledge as well as justified belief
(Schmitt, 2017). This philosophy also analyze the nature of knowledge and determine how it

related to similar belief i.e. truth and justification. Or else, it is also deal with the means of
production of knowledge with different claims.
Axiology: It is the philosophical study of value as well as ethics and its importance is
completely relies on its unification which is provided for the study of variety of questions. It is
also based upon two important parts i.e. right and wrong of action taken by research and things
which are good and desirable.
The ontology stance is describe as a relationship with the reality of own study. Such that
researcher consider the reality to be independent of their knowledge . The stance of epistemology
is to underlie the whole research process and also governs it through a particular theoretical
perspective. The stance of axiology is to clarify that the researcher explain the whole research is
accurate or not. Further, it only focus on the value of collected data (Tooley, 2017).
Positivism research paradigm: It is the theory which stating that certain knowledge is
particularly based upon the natural phenomenum and its properties and relations. Moreover, it
also derived from the sensory experience that helps to collect range of information related to
research topic.
Interpretivism : It means that reseracher may interpret the element of the study in such a
manner that helps to determine view of researcher. Further, it also integrates the human interest
into study and also access to reality (Rahi, 2017).
Interpretivism paradigm are adopted
In this research, researcher adopt Interpretivism research paradigm which is fits for
research questions and aims perfectly. It is the best method in which people are not follower who
act to social forces. It prefers qualitative approach of research, in depth data is gained from lives
of participants in order to obtain information about respondents that's why researcher chose this
paradigm.
Research method used to carry out research
In order to collect much info about students attributes towards exercise that help
marketing manager of promote their gym to consumers, research chose qualitative research
method because it makes further process easy for investigator and allow collecting in depth
knowledge for getting proper findings (Flick, 2018). It helps to learn more about opinions of
students regrading above topic.