EMBA MARKET RESEARCH
Following a fifteen year experience in product development, market research, marketing planning, customer relations, channel management, consultative selling, distribution, direct marketing, sales promotion, brand management, advertising, and public relations at Nolan Plc, you were appointed Marketing Director at Villiard Ltd, a newly established but promising Health Management Organization (HMO) based in Victoria Island. Villiard aims to be a premium brand operating mainly within the A, B, C1, and C2 socioeconomic segments of the market. You are scheduled to resume for work on the first Monday of August. Given your broad, extensive, and all-embracing experience in marketing management, you understood that being a new market entrant with zero track record, it will be challenging to sell Villiard’s HMO premium service to a maturing market already dominated by major operators with deep pockets without undertaking a strategic brand visibility exercise. Put another way, you are fully and incontrovertibly convinced that if Villiard was to achieve its marketing goal of acquiring 15% of current market share within its first year of operations, it must pursue, among other things, a strategic corporate marketing and communications campaign that creates brand recognition and presence and drives a switch in favor of Villiard’s products. Based on your rich industry experience, you are convinced that if Villiard’s marketing goals are to be accomplished within the first year, all marketing activities must be underpinned by credible insights from a market research exercise that gauges what customers want or prefer & why, how they want it, where and where they want it, how they want it and how much they are happy to pay for Villiard’s services. In view of this conviction, you are to undertake a market research exercise that gives: (1) in-depth understanding of the HMO target audiences and the influences that shape their attitudes, belief systems and decision-making processes (2) insight into the buying behavior, product and media usage, psychographic and lifestyle patterns within socioeconomic (SEC), geographical, age and gender groups (3) insight into general lifestyle issues amongst the identified groups in the HMO market, and forge opportunities to develop a corporate marketing communication strategy and media programming as a means of appealing to the market. The outcome of the study must address these issues comprehensively. In essence, findings from the study must be capable of aiding the development of a corporate marketing communication strategy in support of Villiard’s entry into the marketplace. Note  The study must indicate the approach that was deployed in pursuing the assignment.  Assignment to be submitted on the very 1 st day of your written examination Suggested structure Students are advised to follow this structure religiously. Also each section must start on a new page. Table of contents Please ensure there is a table of contents in your work for easy mapping and direction Section one: Executive summary Candidate identifies problem excellently and comprehensively and maps out a structure of how this challenge would be resolved. This may also include the objective, a map into the entire document etc Section two: Methodological approach, methods & research design Students are required to put forward a comprehensive discussion of the methodological approach and the rationale for the choice of this approach. Rationale for instance may be discussed within the context of the conditions under which a chosen methodology is often deployed. This section should also highlight and underscore how the research objectives fit into the methodological approach. Students must discount other popular methods by discussing why other popular market research methods are not chosen within the context of this research. The proposed methodology should at least contain two methods or instruments: these are discussed below:  Method I It would be truly useful to have a clear and excellent discussion of the method deployed and the rationale for the deployment of method. Student makes a detailed cum excellent analysis of the method with the use of visual materials, references to tradition etc to drive point home  Method II Same as Method I Section three: Data analytical approach & discussion of findings The method for analyzing data is presented and discussed. Findings are addressed comprehensively in relation to the core objectives of the market research. The student demonstrates this excellently by presenting a practical analysis of the implication of findings for the firm and indeed the market. Section four: Recommendations Student puts forward a well-articulated strategy recommendation for the pursuit of the findings in the research. Students do so by offering some graphic illustration of how their recommended strategy can be opertionalized Section five: Conclusion Student highlights the problem, the key objective, the research methodology deployed and the rationale behind the decision to follow the methodology. Student highlights the challenge in data collection, makes references to how this challenge was addressed References References follow Harvard style religiously with no flaws Appendix This may include copies of interview schedule, questionnaire etc I would like about 5-7 refrences