Interpreting and writing up research material

(for some reason speaking in second person)

RESEARCH METHODS?

In order to get started on your research first you must decide on which forms of research methods you are going to take. For this project in particular when finding out about our brands we must do both secondary and primary research.

SECONDARY RESEARCH -

For Secondary research we could look at possible journals or magazine articles or even books or websites, these are findings from other existing sources which we choose to use in relevance to what we are trying to say within our own research. By using data sources from other people we must always remember to reference where we have located the information and who wrote/found it.

PRIMARY RESEARCH -

However with Primary research this comes from data that you have sourced yourself. There are two forms of primary research, there is quantitative and qualitative. Quantitative - is data which involves numerical and analysed in statistical methods, for example in surveys, questionnaires and observation with numerical data. Qualitative - involves pictures, words, artifacts and other non numerical data.

Think about your primary research. When you can't find the missing puzzle to match to your secondary research findings you may realise that you need to go out and source the information for yourself. In this case you could interview people such as PR, a company employee. Consumers or maybe even the director?

You can even do your own individual observation by going into the stores of the brands you have chosen to look at and create a shop report of the price, visual merchandising, consumers, layout, labels etc. if you don't want to directly go to store use your secondary research and look in magazines, source advertisements and research online for store layouts in different locations.

DOCUMENTATION -

Document your personal data by photographing and recording videos that will help lead back to your report structure and layout.

ETHNOGRAPHY & ANTHROPOLOGY -

Other areas of research methods we could look at are ethnography and anthropology.

Ethnography - this is a scientific description of a research method which in basic terms means looking at people, for example you could decide to do a wardrobe analysis. It focuses on people and culture with their customs, habits, and mutual differences. Anthropology - this looks at the study of people around the world and throughout time. It studies people from every possible angle including historical, biological, linguistic and cultural.

ORGANISATION -

Once you have collected all of your data, organise it so your head doesn't explode with the huge chunk load of information. Break down what you have found and categorise each thing into chapters so it becomes more organised and more like a report. You could also begin to structure your information into a mind map and also go back to the brief to highlight anything of particular importance. Don’t forget about your visual essay, a lot of the information you already have will be in this, go back to it and make notes!

ANALYTICAL TOOLS -

• 4/7 p’s
• SWOT
• PESTLE

The 7 p’s of the marketing mix are:

• Product
• Place
• Price
• Promotion
• People
• And physical environment

STRUCTURE -

1. Executive summary - goes at the front of your report but it is the last thing you write as it's to summarise all of your report.
2. Company introduction - start with this. Take information from your visual essay.

• History
• Brand philosophy
• Brand values
• Product offer
• Brand extensions

    3. Internal audit

• Micro environment
• Brand positioning
• Brand value - the marketing mix (p’s)
• Brand positioning (porter 5 forces)
• Business model
• Financial positioning (historical/current/expected growth)
• Visual identity - creator, logos, symbols, fonts, typography, colours, materials, motifs.

    4. Strategy - external audit

• Macro environment (PESTLE)
• Target consumers
• Growth strategy
• Consumers view of the brand
• CSR/ethics
• Celebrity endorsements
• Global expansion
• Retail life cycle

   5. Evaluation

• SWOT
• Recommendations
• Expansion

   6. Appendix

• Reference list
• Diagrams
• Tables
• Evidence of primary research e.g: surveys