Assessment: 01 – Written / Theoretical Questions

Assessment Description:

Please answer all of the following questions.

1.  What types of data, from internal and external sources, will generate  information relevant to forecasts of market trends and developments?  List at least six sources of internal and of external data.

2. List eight forms of legislation or regulation that apply to the market.

3.  What software applications can be useful for a marketing analysis?  Conduct research, looking at both open source and proprietary packages  and list at least six from each source. Include a brief description of  what the software does or is used for.

4.  List four statistical analysis concepts, five statistical analysis  methods, and five methods of presenting/ reporting on the results of  analyses, commonly used in marketing.

Assessment: 02- Activity Based Tasks 

ACTIVITY 1

1. Explain why business organisations use statistical analysis of market data. (50-100 words)

2.  What is a fad and how does a fad differ from a trend? (100-150 words)  Give five examples of current fads and five examples of current trends  to illustrate your understanding of the difference.

ACTIVITY 2

1. Explain what measures of central tendency and dispersion figures are. (280-300 words)

2. To what sort of data can measures of central tendency and dispersion be applied?

3. What are data correlations and why is it important to identify correlations? (150 words}

ACTIVITY 3

1.  What is quantitative data, when is it helpful and under what  circumstances might you choose to conduct qualitative rather than  quantitative research? (250 words)

2. How does qualitative analysis of comparative market information assist a business? {80- 100 words)

ACTIVITY 4

1. In a sentence explain how you could collect information about a competitor's products or services.

2.  Why is it necessary to collect data that will enable analysis of the  market performance of existing and potential competitors and their  products or services? (100-150 words)

3.  What tools, apart from a SWOT analysis might be useful when conducting  competitor analysis? Conduct independent research to identify at least  two tools that are not included in the text of this unit and describe  the function in detail. {550 words)

ACTIVITY 5

1. Why is performance measurement necessary? (250 words)

ACTIVITY 6

1.  Explain why it is necessary to constantly collect and analyse data that  supports identification of over-performing and under-performing  products and services. {500 words)

Make a list of at least 10 things that might be considered when identifying under or over performing products/ services.

ACTIVITY 7

There are numerous forecasting techniques that can be used for a variety of purposes. These could include:

• Top down/ bottom up forecasting

• Scenario building techniques

• The Delphi method

• Situational analysis

• Statistic survey Panel consensus Historical analogy

• Econometric models

• Time series analysis Exponential smoothing Trend projections

• Moving Averages

This is not a definitive list, there are other methods too.

1.  Select, from the .list at least four techniques. For each, describe the  forecasting process, indicate the data that might be accessed (e.g.  quantitative or qualitative) and the purpose for which the particular  forecasting technique would be used. (100-200 words for each) 

You will need to conduct independent research.

2. Why is it necessary to forecast? (150-200 words)

3.  When identifying new marketing opportunities and possibilities for  introducing new products/ services to add value to the organisation, it  is necessary to take the organisation's capabilities and process  capacity into consideration. These must be measured against both current  and forecast demand. In 150-200 words explain why.

ACTIVITY 8

1. Explain why visual presentations are so useful. (Offer at least three reasons)

2. List at least eight methods of visual presentation.

3.  In a sentence explain why it is necessary to assess visual  presentations for potential problems and to make corrections if needed.

4.  Make a list of at least eight things that should be taken into  consideration when preparing and plotting good quality, useful visual  presentations; and when making suitable adjustments/ corrections.

5. What is the best way for the following data to be charted?

The  marketing manager has asked you to make a presentation to the marketing  department about research findings you have made. The graphic design  department has come back with some options shown below-answer each  question.

  a. Why is the bar graph on the right more accurate and easy to comprehend? How could it be improved even more?

ACTIVITY 9

1. To whom might you need to report on the analysis of market data? List four people or bodies to whom you would report.

2.  Each organisation will have specific requirements regarding reporting  procedures: content, format, level of detail and scheduling; however,  there are some basic rules that apply to all reports. List six.

3. Name three common problems that might apply to a research report.

Assessment: 03- Project Based Tasks 

PROJECT 

You need to demonstrate that you can use statistical data to interpret market trends and developments.

For a specific organisation you must:

Develop  a research plan that will enable you to gather both quantitative and  qualitative data about internal and external conditions that affect the  market and your organisation's product/ service positioning within the  market.

Explain what data you are  collecting and why you believe this data is relevant and useful. If you  used surveys, submit the surveys and survey results to the assessor. If  you used other data sources like sales figures or other research submit  these also.

You need to identify,  through appropriate data analysis, trends and developments that will  impact on current products/ services and/or that might offer new  opportunities for the organisation.

You  should analyse the collected data in order to develop forecasts and to  make reports about the organisation's ongoing business activities.

What tools will you use to analyse the data? Explain why these tools are the best.

Once the data is analysed present it in ways that make it readable and useful, for example graphs, tables etc.

What  information have you gleaned from the data analysis and how is it  likely to impact on business operations, for example does it offer new  opportunities or are there products and services that should be closely  examined with a view to termination etc? Summarise the data analyses.

Analyse  the market performance of existing competitors and their products or  services, to identify potential opportunities or threats to the  organisation. Select the necessary tools and software applications. What  tools did you use to do this and what were the results? Make a visual  presentation of the information.

Write  a formal report on the findings of your research on the trends and  developments identified and incorporating the statistical analysis and  interpretation of the market trends and developments.

Statistical analysis might include: 

• measures of central tendency 

• dispersion

• correlations between sets of data

• z-test, t-test, chi-square significance tests

• causal relationships 

• time-series analysis etc

Use  the information that results from the analyses to make suggestions or  recommendations about over-performing and under-performing products and  services and/or about the trends and developments that will affect the  way forward for the organisation.