Marketing Research Proposal for D.A. Supplies: Sales Analysis

This report presents a marketing research proposal for D.A. Supplies, a garden supply and nursery business experiencing mixed sales performance over the past three years. The proposal aims to identify the factors contributing to the decline in nursery and garden supplies sales, as well as the stagnation of landscaping projects. The research questions focus on understanding the causes of these declines and the potential impact on customer satisfaction. The researcher proposes a hypothesis and suggests consulting with relevant professional bodies like the Australian Market & Social Research Society Limited (AMSRS) to gather insights and ensure ethical research practices. The study will address issues such as research design, population, sampling, and data analysis, with the goal of providing recommendations to improve sales and overall business performance. References include relevant academic sources to support the research methodology and findings.

Running head: MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 0
MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES
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MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 1
Marketing research describes a technique that helps decision makers and marketing research
analysts to formulate or define a market study. A market researcher begins by formulating
various stages by determining the specific objective(s) and developing a set of research
question(s) he intends to answer to achieve that objective(s) (Roberts, Kayande, & Stremersch,
2014). Consumer behavior plays an important role in market research because the demeanors of
a targeted consumer are identifiable by means of direct observation. This is achievable through
examination of consumer motivations, preferences, and the purchase behavior of a particular
target population. Knowledge the consumer trends, behavior and preferences will assist in
successful launch of a new product or service into the market or even improvement of an existing
one.
David and his wife, Alison has operated their garden supply and nursery business for over 10
years. The last three years have recorded mixed results in terms of sales performance, supplies
and profits for D.A. Supplies. The performance data for the last three years shows the following:
 A drop in sales of nursery by 5% in the last two years. The current contribution of these
sales is 41% of the total profits.
 Garden supplies that attract an overall profit of 34 % have also dropped by five percent.
 There has been stagnation of the number of landscaping projects although the size and
revenue on each project has increased marginally. This has resulted in a steady 10%
overall profit contribution.
 A steady increase in the café business resulting in profit increase of between two to three
percent annually. The café trade has contributed towards 15% of the overall profit for the
business.

MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 2
Based on the statistics above, D.A. Supplies needs to identify why there has been steady decline
in sales of nursery, a major contributor to the company profits, garden supplies and stagnation of
garden supplies. The research questions therefore are proposed to include the following:
 What are the factors that have contributed to the decline of nursery sales?
 What are the factors that have contributed to the decline of garden supplies sales?
 What are the factors that have contributed to the stagnation of landscaping project
numbers?
The researcher proposes the following research hypothesis:
H0: There is no relationship between decline in nursery sales, garden supplies sales, stagnation of
landscaping projects and customer satisfaction.
HA: There is a relationship between decline in nursery sales, garden supplies sales, stagnation of
landscaping projects and customer satisfaction.
To answer the above research questions, the proprietors of D.A. supplies will need to identify
whether there has been unfair competition from other players in the industry in contravention of
the Trade Practices Act (1974) consolidated from 19th of April, 2010. The aim of the Act is “to
enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading and
provision for consumer protection.” Part XIII (Application and transitional provisions relating to
the competition provisions) of the act underscores the issues related to price-fixing while part
XIA The Competition Code provides for an avenue of redress in court where a plaintiff feels
there has been unfair competition.
The owners of D.A. Supplies will need to consult the Australian Market & Social Research
Society Limited (AMSRS) which is a not-for-profit professional membership body that has more
than 2000 market research and social research professionals. The members of AMSRS are

MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 3
dedicated to providing and increasing the standard of market research in Australia (AMSRS,
2018). Members of AMSRS were consulted widely to determine the research needs. The
requirements to conduct the research were the code of conduct of conducting the research,
ethical considerations such as the need to obtain consent from participants of the market survey,
and confidentiality assurance.
The proposed market research will need to address a number of issues. This will include:
location of the study, scope of the intended study, research design, and the population of the
study, sampling frame, sample size and sampling technique. Research design enables
achievement of the study objectives. The type of research design chosen facilitates the level of
achievement of the research objectives since utilization of an inappropriate research design may
result in the research goals not to be achieved (Saunders, Lewis & Thornhill, 2009). Target
population provides a set of characteristics that the researcher uses to gather information from
which the researcher obtains results by applying selected data analysis techniques (Orodho,
2005).
According to Kothari (2013), it is expected that target population contains observable attributes
that a researcher intends to use for the purpose of generalizing the study results. It is
recommended that before commencing any research, the researcher has to decide whether to use
the entire population or a sample (Kimwomi, 2015). This is because where the population in
large, it is highly unlikely that a researcher will have neither the time nor resources to conduct a
survey of all the elements of the population. Therefore, it is imperative for a researcher to utilize
a sample to enable the findings of the sample studies be generalized for the entire population
(Kimwomi, 2015). However, an adequate sample size is required to form the basis of
generalization.

MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 4
D.A. Supplies will need to consider the issues as to why there has been a drop in sales of nursery,
garden supplies and stagnation of the number of landscaping projects by addressing the research
questions suggested in this proposal. It is hoped that the senior management will commission a
full market research plan.

MARKETING RESEARCH PROPOSAL FOR D.A. SUPPLIES 5
References
Australian Market & Social Research Society Limited. (2018). Constitution and Regulations.
Retrieved May 11, 2018, from https://www.amsrs.com.au/about/about-the-amsrs
Kimwomi, H. K. (2015). Knowledge strategy, organizational characteristics, innovation and
performance of manufacturing firms in Kenya (Unpublished PhD thesis). University of
Nairobi.
Kothari, C. R. (2013). Quantitative techniques (3rd ed.). Vikas Publishing House.
Roberts, J. H., Kayande, U., & Stremersch, S. (2014). From academic research to marketing
practice: Exploring the marketing science value chain. International Journal of Research
in Marketing,31(2), 127-140. doi:10.1016/j.ijresmar.2013.07.006
Saunders, M., Lewis, P. & Thornhill, A. (2009). Research methods for business students. (5th
Edition). London: Prentice Hall.