Market Research Project: Analyzing D.A. Garden Supplies Business

This project outlines a market research proposal for D.A. Garden Supplies, an Australian business facing revenue challenges in its nursery segment. The proposal emphasizes the importance of market research in understanding customer preferences and macroeconomic factors to develop effective business strategies. It addresses issues related to shifting focus from the nursery to the café segment, potentially violating trade practices. The research objectives include improving business generation in the nursery LOB, boosting customer satisfaction, enhancing overall revenue, and strengthening market position. The project further details the consultation process, resource requirements, research methodologies, data gathering approaches, and data processing methods necessary to execute the market research plan effectively, aiming to convert the proposal into a full-fledged 'Revenue generation boosting' project.

Running head: PROJECT MANAGEMENT
PROJECT MANAGEMENT
Name of the Student:
Name of the University:
Author Note:

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Table of Contents
Task 01. Proposal.........................................................................................................................1
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................1
Market research and its role in resolving current issue:..................................................................2
Contribution of market research to the success of D.A. Garden Supplies:.....................................5
Research needs of D.A. Garden Supplies:.......................................................................................5
Drafting research objectives:...........................................................................................................5
A statement of market research needs:............................................................................................6
Information on the consultation process that will be required to progress to the next stage,
scoping the project:..........................................................................................................................6
Details of any industry individuals or external bodies you consulted in determining these
research needs:.................................................................................................................................6
Conclusion:......................................................................................................................................7
Task 02.............................................................................................................................................8
Introduction:....................................................................................................................................8
Review of the previous proposal:....................................................................................................8
Preliminary project scope:...............................................................................................................8
The human, financial and physical resources required and available:........................................9
Identifies any external market research assistance that will be required:........................................9
Describes possible research locations:...........................................................................10

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Describes your planned research methodologies:.....................................................10
Explains the sample size and nature of your sample:....................................................................11
Documents the time required and available:...............................................................11
Data Gathering Approaches:..........................................................................................................13
Type of data required:................................................................................................................13
Three suitable data gathering method along with justification:.....................................................13
Interview:...................................................................................................................................13
Survey:.......................................................................................................................................14
Online research:.........................................................................................................................15
Sources of required data:...............................................................................................................15
Quantifying the data:.....................................................................................................................16
Four data processing methods:......................................................................................................16
Final revision of the draft:.............................................................................................................16
Conclusion:....................................................................................................................................16
Task 3.............................................................................................................................................18
References:....................................................................................................................................19

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Task 01. Proposal.
Introduction:
One of the business models which firms adopt to gain competitive advantage in the
market is diversification of product strategies. The firms hold several divisions with each
division selling products belonging to a different industry. This business model prevents one
single firm, especially at the local level. The business model combining several business
verticals are profitable but pose managerial challenges before the management. Failure to
manage all the results in erosion of profits in certain segments which hits the overall profit
generation. Efficient management of all the business segments requires the firms owning them to
conduct extensive market research in order to form appropriate business strategies to operate all
the business segments profitably. The aim of the research would be delving into the importance
of market research which also involves hiring consultancy firms to strengthen the market
research. The multinational firms owing to the immense market resources, are able to control
their diverse business verticals strategically but small firms with limited resources find it
challenging to manage their diverse business lines of business or LOBs. The research would be
based on a case study revolving around one such small business called D.A. Garden Supplies
based in Australia. The firm is a small business consisting of two business verticals namely
nursery and café owned by David and wife Allison. The firm after generating high profits in the
past years is facing losses at present owing to the failures of the owners to manage both the
nursery and café segments strategically. The case study clearly shows that the owners are
emphasising on the café segments at the expense of the nursery segment which has resulted the
latter generating negative revenue by a whopping 5 percent. The owners in order to deal with the

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issue have hired a consultant. The entire paper would be done from the point of view of the
consultant.
Market research and its role in resolving current issue:
Market research can enable D.A. Garden Supplies to resolve the current issue of falling
revenue generation in the nursery line of business. Ruiz and Holmlund (2017) define the term
market research as the process to gather knowledge about target markets. Boddy (2016) mentions
that market research consists of gaining information from the market about the macroeconomic
factors like changing customer preferences. The business organisations use the findings from the
market research form business strategies. An analysis of the case study provided shows that D.A.
Garden Supplies can utilise the information to deal with the current issue, namely dwindling
market revenue from the nursery business segments.

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Market research
Gaining of information
regarding market conditions
like customer preferences
David and Allison can use
market research information to
form strategies on the 2 LOBs
Efficient management of
both the LOBs
Customer satisfaction of
customers to both LOBsGeneration of high
revenue for both LOBs
(Issues met)
Figure 1. Use of market research to meet the issue of falling revenue generation in nursery
(Source: Author)
As shown in the flowchart above, D.A. Garden Supplies can adopt market research to
deal with the issue of falling revenue generation in its nursery vertical and consequently overall

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revenue generation. The name of the firm is D.A. Garden Supplies which creates impression that
the core business of the firm revolves around selling gardening products like plants and
fertilizers or garden supplies. However, the case study gives more information about the café
segment of the business. It can be inferred from the description that the owners of the firm are
shifting their attention from nursery business to café business. This means that the firm would
mobilise more capital towards the café segment at the expense of the garden supplies. This
limiting of investment of capital into the gardening business segment would result in lack of
product acquisition in the former. This means that the firm would be able to less products
available to customers, thus resulting lower customer satisfaction among them. This lowering
customer satisfaction among the garden suppliers’ customer segments would repel customers
from the firm, thus resulting in falling revenue generation in the nursery business segment. This
fall in the revenue generation in the gardening segment would consequently result in falling
revenue in the business as a whole. The means that the shifting of the core operations of the firm
towards café business is not aligned to its name, D.A. Garden Supplies. In fact this gap between
the name of the firm and its present core business namely, café are contradictory to Trade
Practices Act 1974 (Legislation.gov.au. 2019). The object of the Act reads, ‘The object of this
Act is to enhance the welfare of Australians through the promotion of competition and fair trading
and provision for consumer protection.’ This means that the act seeks to protect the interests of the
customers in Australia. However, as far as the firm is concerned, it can be pointed out that by making less
resources available to the nursery vertical is making less products to the customers. Thus, in other words
the firm is failing to protect the interests of the customers of the segment, thus breaching the act. It can
also be pointed out that the firm by not protecting the interests of the customers of its nursery segment is
actually indulging into unethical practices. In other words the firm is breaching ethical practices
(Williams 2017). Thus, it can be pointed out that firm should use market research to deal with the issue.

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The firm by conducting market research would be able to gain information about significant market
aspects like customer expectations. This would enable the firm to form strategies which would enable it to
serve the customers of both the LOBs namely, nursery and café. This would boost the revenue generation
of both the nursery and the café. This would boost the overall revenue generation of the firm. Thus, it can
be inferred from the discussion that marketing research would enable the firm to cater to both the
customer segments more satisfactorily and generate higher revenue.
Contribution of market research to the success of D.A. Garden Supplies:
Marketing research would contribute the success of D.A. Garden Supplies in several
ways. First of all, market research would enable the company to gain information about its target
market and preferences of customers. For example, the firm would be able to gain information
about the new construction projects involving construction of parks. These new projects would
generate business for the firm since the firm would be able to generate garden designing orders
in these parks. Secondly, market research would enable the firm to form strategies aligned to the
market conditions. Thirdly, market research would enable the firm to generate higher revenue
which can be inferred as the outcome of the second benefits.
Research needs of D.A. Garden Supplies:
The research needs of D.A. Garden Supplies would consist of conducting research about
the prevailing market conditions of Australia. The research would need the firm to conduct
research on the macroeconomic aspects like the political conditions and economic conditions.
The firm should require to deploy human resources to conduct the market research.
Drafting research objectives:
The following are the research objectives of D.A. Gardening Supplies:

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1. Improvement of the business generation in the nursery LOB.
2. Boosting of customer satisfaction to the customers of D.A. Gardening Supplies.
3. Enhancement of overall revenue.
4. Strengthening of market position and competitive advantage.
A statement of market research needs:
Enhancement of revenue generation in the gardening LOB and enhancement of overall
revenue generation of the firm. The management of Garden Supplies should conduct a detailed
market research in order to gain more information about the changing market trends. This would
enable them to form more appropriate business strategies.
Information on the consultation process that will be required to progress to the next stage,
scoping the project:
The information which would be required to progress to the next stage which is scoping
the project would consists of the following:
1. Information about the macroeconomic conditions of Australia.
2. Information about the strengths and weaknesses of the firm.
3. Information about the resources of the firm at present like human resources and technological
resources.
4. Information about the resources which the firm would be required to acquire in order to
conduct market research.

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Details of any industry individuals or external bodies you consulted in determining these
research needs:
The external bodies which were consulted while determining the research needs consist
would government officials and investors. The firm also gained feedback from its suppliers in
order to identify the research needs. The management of the firm did consult the financial
institutions with which it holds current accounts.
Conclusion:
It can be concluded on the basis of the discussion that D.A. Gardening Suppliers should
make strategies to recover the loss of revenue in its nursery LOB. It can also be concluded from
the discussion that the firm should conduct an in depth market research to gain knowledge about
the prevailing market conditions of Australia. This would enable the firm to form strategies
which it would implement to boost its revenue generation.

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Task 02.
Introduction:
The aim of the report would be reviewing the proposal proposed to the management of
D.A. Gardening Supplies. The company is a business firm in Australia which deals in gardening
products and café. The management of the company is currently focusing on the café LOB to
boost the revenue generation of the LOB at the expense of the nursery LOB. This has resulted in
negative revenue generation in the nursery LOB which has resulted in dwindling revenue
generation of the firm as a whole. The firm in order to deal with this issue of dwindling revenue
generation has hired a consultant. The consultant has proposed that the company should conduct
a market research. The aim of the task would be reviewing the market research components and
propose improvements in the components. This assignment would convert the proposed market
research into a full-fledged project. The name of the project would be ‘Revenue generation
boosting’ project.
Review of the previous proposal:
A review of the previous proposal shows that D.A Gardening Suppliers should conduct a
more in depth market research. The firm in its market research should include the legal aspects
of Australia consisting of the laws in power in the country. For example, the market research
should consist of analysis of the laws like Privacy Act 1988 (Oaic.gov.au. 2019). This would
enable the company to form strategies aligned to the market conditions of the Australia.
Preliminary project scope:
The following are the components of the project scope of revenue generation boosting
project of D.A. Gardening Suppliers would implement:

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The human, financial and physical resources required and available:
The human resources which would be required to conduct the marketing research would
consist of marketing experts. They would conduct research about the macroeconomic conditions
of the country. The project would also involve financial experts who would integrate the findings
gathered by the marketing experts to form the pricing strategies of the products. The marketing
team would also collaborate with the suppliers of the company, especially the suppliers of the
nursery LOB.
The financial resources which would be mobilized towards the project would be funds
approved by the owners of the firm namely, David and Allison. The owners may also borrow
loan from reputed banks in order to obtain more capital to conduct more in depth market
research.
The physical resources which would be used to conduct the market research project
would consists of technological resources like computer and software. The company would be
required to acquire technology like cloud computing and knowledge management system in
order to enable accumulation, storage and application of a large body of market research
information to form the business strategies to boost the revenue generation of the gardening
LOB.
Identifies any external market research assistance that will be required:
The firm namely, D.A. Gardening Supplies should acquire consultation from external
marketing consultation. The marketing consultancy firm would provide the firm with more
marketing information. This availability of more marketing information would enable the