Marketing And Management Of Intellectual Property Rights Report

Market Research Plan

Define the Report for Marketing and Management of Intellectual Property Rights.

Introduction

The report highlights the diversification made in the assortment mix for the Houzit home ware stores in Brisbane where the entire market research process needs to be managed with liaison to the general manager of store operations. However, Houzit is in a need to adopt policy and procedures that could presumably in defining the scope and phase of the case study.

Houzit is a home ware store in Brisbane that has specialized in different fittings whether it is bathroom, bedroom, lightings, mirrors or decorative items and has been operating in 15 stores. The shareholder has opted to carry out the market research to study the feasibility of diversifying in the product of lighting fittings. However, there is a use of extensive knowledge to study the scope of the research in the entire market studying the research process of the board.

The research objectives is to broaden the store offer by including lighting mixtures in the assortment mix.

• The feasibility of the market of Brisbane to adopt the change of lighting fittings in assortment mix.
• The research studies how the diversification in a product entails effective market evaluation.

The research requirements highlight the acquisition of suppliers in the market for proper resource allocation as well as the preferred suppliers that suit the budget allocated. The other requirements that needs to be taken into consideration are resources as well as well as opportunities that will help in enlisting the objective of the task.

The business environment of Houzit can be studied based on the perspective of the political, economic, social as well as technological factors (PEST)

Pest Analysis
Political Factors	The political factors assume to be comfortable as the Australian Government has the best practice model for business to empower customer protection in electronic commerce as well as online traders.
Economic Factors	The economic market depending on demand and supply assumes to be give myriad of outlets hunt for different fittings and mirror products. However, for the customers, the marketing code of practice promotes fair trading in promoting goods and services (Kolah 2013)
Social Factors	The social factor highlight the likeness of the customers for the vintage as well as classic products that add to the trend in the local market (Mustdobrisbane.com 2016).
Technological Factors	The technological factors like new machines and techniques are used in the home ware products such that the furnishings and fittings as well as lighting fittings such that technology oughts to play an important factor (Sparke 2013).

The competitive analysis can be studied based on the competition in the market of Brisbane.

Competitive Rivalry – The competitive rivalry of Houzit home ware is high because Brisbane market is flooded with fittings and fixtures accompanied by different competitors like taste, gift emporium, pottery barn, the soul pantry, etc.

Threat of new Entrants – The threat of new entrants is medium because new stores in Brisbane requires capital which can prove to be one of the big hurdle for the new people who wish to join the homeware shopping business

Threat of Substitutes – The threat of substitutes is medium because the glassware, soft furnishings, glassware as well as fittings turns out to be available in the market but not exactly with the one preferred. However, the market for homeware seems to be growing at its own pace (Connell 2016).

Bargaining Power of Suppliers – The bargaining power of supplier is high because there are many quotations that needs to be dealt with before choosing one. The power can be high as well if the supplier of get a good quotation from some other homeware online shopping.

Industry Overview

Bargaining Power of Buyers – The bargaining power of suppliers is even high because the customers have various yet distinct option to choose from different stores highlight the increasing competitiveness in market.

The value chain analysis is the process of performing the delivery of the product that has been recently been diversified in the market for the same industry. As per the value chain analysis, lighting fittings also needs to pass through the chain of order that gains value. According to the research, the results will be focusing on the low cost principle as documentation, assessment as well as the described processes adhere to the political routine for the core quality and certification of business (Laguna and Marklund 2013).

Internal resources: The employees as well as the managers that will be devoting their time to this diversification is the given marketing team with a focus of getting and maintaining popularity in the market (Russell-Jones and Jones 2014).

Marketing Team

• Tony – Search Engine and Website Maintenance
• Marie- Advertising and Public Relations
• Joanne – Administration officer

External resources: The external resources that can be analysed is through the resource usage application.

Description	Quantity	Internal or External	External resource Costs
Home ware trade association	1	External	$1,000
Home ware magazines and publications	1	External	$250 per quarter = $1,000
Australian Bureau of Statistics	1	External	$250
Human resources (full time employees)	4	Internal	$1,000 (not included)
Physical Resources (Distribution Networks)	3	External	$250

Table 1: External Resources

Source: (Created by Author)

The budget has been allocated for $15,000

Description	Expected Amount
Research Needs	$2,000
Research Information	$2,000
Research Technique (Customer Surveys Interviews, Focus Groups)	$3,000
Market Research (Primary and Secondary Research)	$3,000
Research Participants	$1,500
External Resources	$3,500
Total	$15,000

Table 2: Budget Planning

Source: (Created by Author)

As per the mentioned quotations by the suppliers, the quotation that seems to be beneficial after the week and a half research is Lombard consulting being local firm in Brisbane. Moreover, with $12,000 quotation and specialist staff, a local supplier who could apply all methods of research will complete the market research soon.

OHS – Health and safety are important in a workplace for unnecessary costs as well as damage in terms of external and distributional costs (Reisman 2016). Moreover, OHS is to ensure and hazards identified.

Data Privacy – The data for particular quotations as well as tactic used in marketing research plan should be maintained (Denscombe 2014).

KPI’s – The key performance indicators that will be used in the evaluating the research is through business, goals, techniques as well as source of information that it ill imply from focus groups or interviews.

Staff Involvement – The task will be monitored by strict compliance in relation to suppliers as well as people. Moreover, there will different staff meeting with the suppliers to highlight the undertaking of plan (Wilhelp et al. 2016). On the contrary, the sales, profits as well as legal constraints will be analysed keeping in mind the customer feedbacks for the rest of the products of Houzit already circulated in the market.

Quality of Data – The quality of data as mentioned will be used entrusted to the Australian Bureau of Statistics and Home ware trade associations.

Research Objectives

Communication Strategies – The communication strategies that will be undertaken is through in stores where Houzit will be able to differentiate its product from the rising competition. Moreover, it will also provide visibility and awareness regarding the diversified product to the customers (Cornelissen 2014). The lighting fixtures in the assortment fix will add to the popularity of Houzit.

The target market deals with the market in Brisbane where the research studies the target market of elite yet higher middle class people. This target segmentation can help in increasing the market share of the business as fittings are generally used in houses, hotels, etc. Although the fittings demand is changing but the recent marketing activities has been shifting to conventional (Hirst, Thompson and Bromley 2015).

The research needs to focus on different statistical measure to analyse the market of homeware in Brisbane. As seen, diversification is completely a different project and is favourable only with the market analysis. However, the market analysis was done on the research needs to understand the materials provided to the suppliers for getting information. The research had been followed on various customer focus surveys that study the market trend and the group of buyer interested in homeware using secondary and primary research method (Harrison et al. 2016).

	Week I	Week II	Week III	Week IV	Week V	Week VI	Week VII	Week VIII
Business Environment, Competitors and Target Category
Supplier Selection
Capabilities and Resources
Policy Procedures
Value Chain Analysis
Research Information Needs
Research Technique
Budget Allocation and Timing
Market Research
Research Findings
Research Report

Table 3: Gantt Chart

Source: (Created by Author)

Conclusion

To conclude it can be said that developing market research plan is evident as well as highlights the different steps in which it can be understood in the case study. However, this study also evaluates the variability in the market due to different homeware products in market. Although, Houzit has a large competition to stay in the market. Moreover, after analysing through different perspectives of suppliers as well as target market, it can be seen that the homeware market’s diversification used for lighting fittings can prove to be effective in the existing market

Introduction

The market research highlights the report for the time when the milestones have been developed to organize the contract drawn up the areas of agreement to the work (Diochon and Ghore 2016). However, there have been slack of activities in completing the task. On the other hand, the milestones have been developed in the report according to the days in the week based on information. The agreement and milestones of the study are outlined in the report.

Contract for Supply Of  Lombards Consulting The contract is made on the Date 29 August 2016 between Houzit Homeware Group and Lombards Consulting Tony and John of City of Queensland, State of Australia. For valuable consideration, the following is agreed by the parties 1.      Details of Agreement: 2.      No contract modification will be entertained unless it is signed as well as written by both the parries 3.      Time is the essence of the Contract 4.      This document is entire agreement that will take place between the two parties 5.      The contract is by the laws of Australia

Signature of the two Parries _______________________________                 _____________________________ Name _______________________________                 _____________________________ Witness _______________________________                  ____________________________ Witness Name _______________________________                     ______________________________

The milestones that have been decided in the face of activities led to market research in relation to the plan to add the lighting fittings category to the assortment offer and the critical path has been defined.

	Start Date								Minutes to Completion
	2/24/2016								137.67
	Finish Date
	9/2/2016
								Times (in Weeks)
									Time Distribution:	Triangular						[42]
ID	Task Name	Predecessors (Enter one ID per cell)	O (min)	M (most likely)	P (max)	Duration (exp. time)	ES	EF	LS	LF	Slack
10	Start – Research							56	56	70	60.67	0.00	60.67	0.00	0.00	0.00
20	Definition/ Scope; Consultant/ Supplier	10						7	11	14	10.67	60.67	71.33	0.00	0.00	0.00
30	Information Needs Questionnaire	10	50					14	21	28	21.00	77.00	98.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
40	Document Information needs	10						14	7	21	14.00	60.67	74.67	0.00	0.00	0.00
50	Information Gathered	10						14	14	21	16.33	60.67	77.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
60	Research Participant	30						7	7	7	7.00	98.00	105.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
70	Research Technique	60						14	15	21	16.67	105.00	121.67	0.00	0.00	0.00
80	Timing Requirements and Budget	40	30					14	21	35	23.33	98.00	121.33	0.00	0.00	0.00
90	Primary Market Research	80						14	7	28	16.33	121.33	137.67	0.00	0.00	0.00
100	Consultant Report Difficulty	90	20					0	10	21	10.33	137.67	148.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
110	Secondary Market Research	80						14	14	21	16.33	121.33	137.67	121.33	137.67	0.00
120	Research Findings	100	60					14	10	84	36.00	148.00	184.00	0.00	0.00	0.00
130	Research Reports	110									0.00	137.67	137.67	137.67	137.67	0.00

Research Requirements

Table 4: Critical Research Path

Source: (Created by Author)

Figure 1: Critical Research Path (Milestones)

Source: (Created by Author)

According to the weekly monitoring reports, it can be seen that the definition of scope has taken not much time as the supplier selection was based on the quotation and most of the research was completed. Moreover, the research information needs, technique as well as source of information was completed late due to the time required by the consultation done. However, due to consultation requests budget completion was completed late irrespective of primary and secondary research. However at last, the research was completed only 2 days late than the required time.

Conclusion

It can be concluded that the research undertaken in the report is for the contract between the two parties that is Houzit Homeware and Lombard Consultation. Moreover, the market research report accompanied the weekly milestones and the lack that had been experienced in the report overall.

Introduction

The final report studies the research project evaluation based on location and availability of the source data. The report evaluates the two different researches applied to the research that is primary and secondary data (Baldwin 2014). However, Lombards Consulting uses a scientific method to study the present scenario in Brisbane and the confidence in market. However, the research was carried forward and the report was analysed on the results and findings from the supplier and on performance review by the stakeholder’s response.

The findings of the research were done by Lombards, which stated that the industry had a prominent impact on the market of Brisbane. The business that “lighting fixtures” can give the industry is around $22 million as estimated for the year 2009-2010. The growing rate of Brisbane has been 4.5% which is considerably more than the Australia as it is growing at a pace of 3.2%.

According to the target market statistics, the market size depicts growth in the new renovations and dwellings in the Brisbane area. Moreover, the income and activity rates also depict that the average annual income of the professionals and management is $110,000 per annum from which the average expenditure on  home-ware is $560 per year.

Nevertheless, the business environment of Brisbane is expansionary because of growing GDP and steady unemployment rate in the economic sector whereas in the social sector recycling programs have been initiated concerning environmental issues. Houzit might face many competitors but the indirect competitor of “lighting fixtures” would be electricians as they are complementary in nature. Therefore, while analysing all the factors that represent the Brisbane market depicts that the market is favourable for diversification of Houzit housewares into lighting fixtures.

Competitive Analysis

The validity of the information gathered can prove to be suitable because there is less biasness in the market ensuring maximum validity and reliability of the data (Nardi 2015). However, the true and accurate data of the information has been quantified depending on the scientific methods used by Lombard Consulting. On the other hand, the customer surveys term to be more reliable as the questionnaire carried out by Lombards were precise and recorded information relevant to the research.

On the contrary, the research termed to be beneficial when analysed with research objectives as it helps in evaluating the feasibility of the market in Brisbane, Australia.

The research plan initially made was more informative as compared to the result carried out by Lombards, which were practical in nature. However, the policy and procedures undertaken in the research plan were the guidelines that was followed in the project performance (Kerzner 2013). Nevertheless, relevance of the research plan was majorly on information needs as well as budget planning whereas project performance was the result of research plan.

The project review can be analysed in the research through two perspectives one is from the stakeholder’s perspective and one from the researcher’s perspectives on the recommendations that can be carried out in the future of the research.

According to the stakeholder’s perspective, there was communication gap between the store managers as well as Lombard’s Consulting as there was no formal involvement in the business. Moreover, the study constituted to be of 8 weeks but with proper formulation and procedures, it took around 12-13 turn around weeks to complete.

However, to create more flexible as well as supportive environment it is important that the process dependencies be removed from the business process requirements (Rolstadas 2012).

Conclusion

To conclude, it can be said that that final report had turn out to be beneficial in relation to the research objective carried forward in research plan. However, the industry data obtained from House-ware Trade Association has given an overall positive customer response with growing market for ‘lighting fixture’ in Brisbane.

References

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