Market Research for Country Club
Uploaded by dylanb98 on Oct 31, 2011
This paper discusses market research and the way in which it might be applied by the management of a country club to find out why their membership is falling and no one new is joining.
I Introduction
Market research is a vital tool for anyone who is considering developing a new product, repositioning an existing product, starting a business, analyzing business performance (or lack of performance); it applies to many situations. By going directly to the consumer, developers, managers, owners and others can get a more accurate idea of the realities of their situation than can be found by reviewing past performance or previous records. Both are useful, but the past is not always a reliable guide to the future. Something more is needed, and market research provides that dimension.
This paper discusses market research for the Horton Country Club, a new golf club that is not attracting the memberships it needs to survive and grow. The paper targets three specific areas that the HCC management should consider with regard to their problems: where they compare unfavorably to similar clubs; how they are perceived; and ways to increase membership applications.
This paper further considers the various methods for conducting market research and suggests which is the most appropriate in these situations, and why. Problems inherent in the chosen method are also discussed. Finally, the paper incorporates a literature review.
II The Steps in Market Research
Two of the sources I found differ on the number of steps in the market research process: one suggests six; the other five. However, the processes are virtually identical. Peter Chisnall lists five steps: research brief; research proposal; data collection; data analysis and evaluation; and preparation and presentation of research report. Churchill’s list is similar: problem formulation (research brief); research design (research proposal); design of data collection (this has no counterpart); sample design and data collection (data collection); analysis and interpretation of data (data analysis and evaluation) and research report (preparation and presentation of research report). It’s apparent that Churchill has broken down the data collection into more detail than Chisnall, but the processes are, to all intents and purposes, identical. I believe it’s fair to take this five-step process as being the structure of any market research project.
The first step, then, and one of the most important, is to precisely define the problem to be...