You work as a marketing manager for a medium-sized Hong Kong organization selling a consumer product or service. One of your major tasks is your involvement in your organization's marketing research process. You are asked by the Board of Management to conduct marketing research that will be used by your organisation to gather marketing information for the launch of a new product or service to replace a current product or service. You should pick as the basis of your answer, a real business organisation with which you are familiar or the organisation where you currently work; or a previous employer or any organisation for which you have access to the required information. The plan will include a discussion of the buying behaviour and purchase decision making process of your organisation's current customers, make use of marketing research techniques, make an assessment of market size and of future demand of the new product or service and carry out customer satisfaction measurement.

Task 1 - Buyer behaviour and the purchase decision making process:

1 Describe the main stages of the purchase decision making process as they relate to your organisation's customers.

2 Explain theories of buyer behaviour in terms of individual customers and markets.

3 Explain the factors that affect buyer behaviour.

4 Evaluate the relationship between brand loyalty, corporate image and repeat purchasing as they apply to your organisation.

Task 2 - Using marketing research techniques:

1 Evaluate different types of market research techniques that can be used by your organisation.

2 Use secondary data sources to achieve a specific marketing research objective for your organisation.

3 Assess the validity and reliability of market research findings in the above scenario.

4 Prepare a marketing research plan to obtain information in a given situation related to your organisation.

Task 3 - Assessing market size and future demand:

1 Assess market size trends within a given market for your organisation.

2 Plan and carry out a competitor analysis for your organisation.

3 Evaluate your organisation's opportunities and threats in respect of your chosen new product or service.

Task 4 - Measuring customer satisfaction:

Evaluate the techniques that can be used for assessing your organisation's customer responses to your organisation's new product or service.

Design and complete a customer satisfaction survey for your organisation's customers.

Review the success of the completed customer satisfaction survey.