INTRODUCTION

The primary purpose of commercial organisations is to make profit or

maximise shareholders wealth. It is to this end that they manufacture and
offer products and services to consumers. The process through which
they reach the consumers is called marketing. Therefore marketing can be
seen as the sum total of all activities, which start with production or
manufacture of goods and culminate with the products being offered for
sale to the public and everything in between (such as advertising,
distribution, offers, discounts etc).

The pre requisite for any successful marketing strategy is customer

focused marketing strategies. The concept of customer satisfaction has
evolved into a broader and deeper concept called customer delight.
Customer delight ensures brand loyalty and a bigger share in the product
market for the organisation involved. To ensure customer delight
organisations should be well aware of the customer likes and dislikes.

It is the through the process of marketing research that firms gain

feedback on how customer feel about their products and services. The
Market Research Society in Britain has defined marketing research as
‘’the means used by those who provide goods and services to keep
themselves in touch with the needs and wants of those who buy and use
those goods and services’’. (Chisnall, 1997)

Market research is the study of the markets, which constitute the target,
or potential customer pool of any organisation. Market research aims to
answer questions such who the customers are, what they prefer and what
they dislike, age demographics, lifestyle choices etc.

The main purpose of this thesis is to discuss the research strategy for a
well-known company, the well-established retail chain company John
Lewis. The study is divided into two parts.

In Part A, the company will be first introduced and then analysed through
a situation analysis thereby necessitating a marketing research to be
undertaken. The next step will be to identify a research plan and examine
the benefits to the strategic positioning and tactical operations of the
organisation through the information gained from the market research.
Part B will debate the formulation of a suitable research method to
address the research issues sought to be answered in Part A.

PART A

JOHN LEWIS – ASSESING BRAND IMAGE

John Lewis is one of the most famous high street fashion apparel stores in
the United Kingdom. The products cater to both men and women and
often are viewed as the latest in affordable fashion offering choice and
quality to customers.

The John Lewis Partnership is one of the UK's top ten retail businesses
with 27 John Lewis department stores and 167 Waitrose supermarkets. It
is also the country's largest example of worker co-ownership.
(Www.johnlewispartnership.co.uk)

The Situation Analysis

For the purpose of this research, the competition between John Lewis and
its immediate rivals such as Debenhams, Marks and Spencer will be the
scenario. The situation analysis will be that in a recent board meeting the
directors have decided to step up marketing strategies to improve brand
image and profit figures. The study assumes that the decision by the
board of directors follows mediocre sales performances in the last
financial quarter. The directors fear that the company is loosing brand
image and realise that brand image is very crucial in the retail fashion
scene.

The directors have entrusted the marketing management department to

implement steps to make up for lost performance and assess whether their
doubts about the company loosing brand image are true to any extent.

The marketing manager has called for the services of a market research
firm to gather information from the public on how they feel about
shopping at John Lewis stores. The first step in any market research
endeavour is the formulation of a market research plan.

Research Plan- the blueprint for success

A research plan is the overall framework, which sets out the procedures
processes, which constitutes the research. The need for a good research

2
plan can be likened to the old saying, ‘’ something well begun is half
done’’.

The research plan is as crucial to the researcher as a blueprint to the

architect. (Quee, 1999) The research plan starts with the identification
and definition of a research problem. The research plan suggests the
alternative methods of conducting the research and more importantly the
how the collected data should be processed and analysed to answer what
the organisational seeks to know. A good market research plan maintains
relevance in the research process.

Relevance ensures collecting and processing only information, which is

essential for the task. Relevance comes through support of strategic and
tactical planning activities, that is, by anticipating the kinds of
information that will be required. (Aaker et al, 1995)

Steps in research plan formulation

1. Problem definition – the primary importance lies in identifying and

gaining a detailed and accurate understanding of what the research
aims to analyse. Quee (1997) states that it would be frustrating and
embarrassing for the research client and the researcher to realise
that they do not fully agree on the research purpose after the
project has commenced or been completed.

In this scenario, the problem can be defined as the gathering of

information on the relative preferences of the customers. It aims to
find what the customers particularly like and what they dislike
when John Lewis is compared with other department stores.

2. Method of research- the second but a very important step is to

choose a method of research that is best suited to addressing the
research problem. Here the types of data to be collected are
identified.

For gaining insight into consumer attitudes, descriptive research is

the method of choice. (Ticehurst et al, 2000) Such an approach
would help the research team to develop an understanding of the
profiles and preferences of the target consumers of the John Lewis
group of chain stores. The use of paper questionnaires is
recommended in this case. This would enable the research team to
accurately measure the strengths of the company with both open-
ended and close-ended questions.

3
 3. Sample demographics- the next step is to determine the size of the
targeted audience. It is important that the sample represents the
relevant segments of the public to give accurate results. (Sekaran,
2000) This would include splitting the population into age, sex and
even income group segments.
4. Data processing- the collected data would not be of much use
unless properly processed and analysed. The John Lewis
questionnaires would need to be extensively edited and should be
user friendly and adopt a tactful yet subtle approach when eliciting
responses from the respondent.

Research areas of importance

John Lewis has strategically placed itself in the middle market segment
where it enjoys the business of people from all walks of life. In order to
further enhance its position within the industry the research should seek
to gather and analyse information, which pin point areas of improvement,
which are of strategic and tactical priority.

The research should first concentrate on collecting primary research on

customer preferences. The customer opinions and views can be assessed
through questionnaires, which gathers information on how customers
perceive the John Lewis both as a individual brand and in comparison to
the competitors like Debenhams and Marks and Spencer.

The questionnaire would ideally include scale questions where the

respondent would be asked to rate the different stores on, for example a
scale of 1-10, where 10 would mean very satisfied and 1 would indicate
very dissatisfied. The scale could be repeated for a variety of attributes
such price satisfaction, quality of the products, staff interaction with
customers, and layout of the shop floor. Such an all inclusive paper
questionnaire can isolate the areas that the customers seem to be
dissatisfied with when shopping at John Lewis.

Primary research should aim to answer the following questions:

1. The products and services John Lewis is best known for.

2. How is our company perceived as a shopping outlet?
3. Is the image consistent with our marketing emphasis?
4. Does the image vary by market segment?
5. What is our image compared with the competition?
6. What image should we have, given our strengths and products?
7. What do consumers think of our facilities, personnel, prices,
products, services, and advertising?

4
(http://www.markettrends.com/industry/cons_goods/cons_goods.htm#7)

Through secondary research, the research should be focused on how the

competition deals with changes in market trends. Knowledge of
competitors strategies can help John Lewis to not only adapt but also to
formulate strategy to stay ahead of the competition. Particular attention
should be paid to assess if the rival firms are able to create a better
shopping experience than John Lewis can.

Where as primary research would identify consumers issues, secondary

research will aim at understanding the following points:

1. Who are John Lewis’s primary and secondary competitors?

2. How are they positioning themselves in the market?
3. What are the strengths and weaknesses of the competition?
4. Are there any desirable qualities that the competition has that John
Lewis lack?
5. Is the competition targeting selected market segments? Which
ones?
6. What channels of distribution are the competitors using?
7. Is the competition's distribution mix giving them any competitive
advantage?
8. What media is the competition using?
9. Is the competition's media mix and message giving them an
advantage?
10.What is the market share among the competitors?
11.How is the market share changing in specific product market
segments?
12.Why is the market share changing in these market segments?
13.With which competitor does John Lewis share customers? Why?
14.Who are the best top-of-mind providers among customers?

(http://www.markettrends.com/industry/cons_goods/cons_goods.htm#7)

To summarise, the use of both primary research and secondary research

will help the researchers to gain and overall and deep understanding of
what John Lewis currently has a competitive advantage in and the
specific areas where the rival firms are ahead.

5
 PART B

RESEARCH METHODOLOGY

The primary concern in this research exercise is the collection of data,

which represent the customers views and opinions with regard to
shopping at John Lewis. The research method chosen for this purpose is
descriptive research.

The American Marketing Association defines descriptive research as ‘‘a

research design in which the major emphasis is on determining the
frequency with which something occurs or the extent to which two
variables co-vary’’. (http://www.marketingpower.com/mg-dictionary-
view1025.php)

Descriptive research involves the collection of primary data in order to

answer questions concerning the status and preferences and opinions of
the subjects or respondent intended for the survey.

Descriptive research is used to obtain information concerning the status

of the phenomena to describe, "what exists" with respect to variables or
conditions in a situation. The methods involved range from the survey
that describes the status quo, the correlation study that investigates the
relationship between variables, to developmental studies, which seek to
determine changes over time. (Key, 1997)

There are different forms of descriptive research such as personal

interview, telephonic interview, paper questionnaire and postal surveys.
(Zikmund, 2003) Among the above mentioned methods the research on
behalf of John Lewis would do best with employing paper questionnaire
for the collection of data and subsequent analysis.

The framework of a paper questionnaire is relatively straightforward and

is the method that puts the respondent at ease when giving feedback.
Tactful and courteous persuasion is a pre requisite for successful
communication with the respondent. (Chisnall, 1997)

Below listed are the most important elements that need to be considered
when developing a questionnaire?

6
 1. Simplicity and concise. The questionnaire should be as brief as
possible and solicit only that information essential to the research project.
Every question should be evaluated from two perspectives namely, what
is the intended purpose of the information asked for and is it essential to
have this information for the research purpose.

2. Simple and unambiguous language. The use of terms and words

terms that respondents easily and clearly understand, and avoid obscure
words or technical jargon.

3. The use of neutral questions. The questions in no way should lead

the respondents to answers the client may want to hear. Lead questions
have the effect of introducing bias into the responses and this greatly
affects data accuracy.

4. Check for consistency. Countercheck a question in the list at some

distance from the first question is a good way of ensuring consistency.
This strategy helps verify the consistency with which a respondent has
answered questions. (Meyer et al, 2000)

5.Data processing. Data processing procedures determine the form the

questionnaire should take. If, for example, the data are to be
computerized, the questionnaire must be structured quite differently than
if the data are to be handled in ways that are more conventional. (Aaker et
al, 1995)

6.The look and layout of the questionnaire.. The questionnaire should

have clean lines, accurate typing and, perhaps, even a bit of colour
differentiation to make the questionnaire look attractive.

7. Pilot test. Giving the questionnaire to at least half a dozen non-

respondents to see whether they have difficulty understanding any items
constitutes pilot testing. When the non-respondents actually fill out the
questionnaire, the researchers can see the nature of responses likely to be
recorded and how this fits into the research procedure to ensure
conformity with the research problem.

JOHN LEWIS QUESTIONNAIRE

The John Lewis questionnaire would essentially be a mixture of open

ended and close-ended questions.

The close-ended segment

7
The closed question present structured questions to which respondents
have pre coded responses. This can take different forms ranging from
simple yes or no questions to frequency of shopping on a frequency list.
The pre code method saves time and keeps the responses brief, concise
and relevant. Close-ended questions can be single response or multiple
responses. The method of recording the responses is that the precodes are
usually ringed making it easy to analyse at the data processing stage.
(Chisnall, 1997)
Careful pilot work is essential when routing the responses from one
question to another. For example a person who shops at John Lewis just
for children’s wear would not do good to answer extensively on
preferences about women ‘swear.
The close-ended question should also include a variety of questions on
preferences between the rivals firms among respondents. This can done
using the scale system. Here different scales can be attached to different
attributes. A few examples of attributes would be:-
• Layout of the store
• Price of the products on sale
• Helpfulness of the staff
• Quality of the products
• Convenience in terms of store location
• Enjoyability as a shopping venue
• Variety of the goods on sale
• Degree of contemporary fashion on sale

The respondent can then be given the choice of answering on the scale of
1 to 10 for each store for each of the above-mentioned attributes. This has
a direct effect on the research process because this displays consumer
attitudes to John Lewis when compared to its rivals.

The open-ended segment

It is often advantageous to start a survey with an open-ended question to

build up goodwill with the respondent. (Chisnall, 1997)

Also known as ‘free answer’ or ‘free response’ this type of question

elicits open sentences from respondents. (Key, 1997) It usually asks
respondent to give a small description on how they feel about a certain
issue. The John Lewis questionnaire should include question such as: -

• What is your primary dislike about shopping at John Lewis

8
 • What is one thing you would like to see improved at our stores
• Off the top of your mind how do you perceive John Lewis as a
retailer when compared to other retail stores
• What would encourage you shop more at John Lewis in the future

An important point when dealing with open-ended question is that the

interviewer should take down the responses verbatim. This means word
for word. This means that the interviewer cannot add words or take away
words from the response given by the respondent. The verbatim should
be the exact same as the response.

SUMMARY

John Lewis has the research problem of determining brand image and
customer preferences. For this purpose, it is necessary to communicate
with a large number of respondents at relatively lesser cost. In this
scenario, time is not an immediate constraint and therefore data accuracy
and cost benefit relations are more important. It is to this end that the
method of paper questionnaire has been chosen.
Paper questionnaires can reach a large segment of people covering
different store locations. Respondents can participate in the survey with
assurance that their responses will be anonymous, and so they may be
more truthful than they would be in a personal interview, particularly
when they are talking about personal preferences and spending habits,
which is of importance to the John Lewis survey. This survey also
enables the researchers to collect and analyses every aspect of the
consumer spending habits from loyal customers to impulse buyers.