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Table of Content

1. Introduction ................................................................................................................................. 2

2. Preliminary Project Scope ....................................................................................................... 2

3. Background ................................................................................................................................. 2

4. Target market or Market Information .................................................................................... 3

5. Market Situation ......................................................................................................................... 5

6. Resource Required .................................................................................................................... 6

7. External Market Research ........................................................................................................ 7

8. Market Research Method ......................................................................................................... 7

9. Types of data collections ......................................................................................................... 8

10. Draft research objective ....................................................................................................... 9

11. Design of sample ................................................................................................................... 9

12. Development of hypotheses ............................................................................................. 10

a. Competition ........................................................................................................................... 10
b. Customers.............................................................................................................................. 10
c. Product & Services .............................................................................................................. 11
d. Price ......................................................................................................................................... 11
e. Promotion............................................................................................................................... 11
f. Place ........................................................................................................................................ 12
13. Relevant Legislation ............................................................................................................ 12

14. Conclusion ............................................................................................................................. 15


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1. Introduction

D.A. Garden Supplies is doing a garden supply and nursery business, which
located in a main road, opposite a small suburban shopping centre that includes
a supermarket, department store, café and 12 specialty shops. Over the years,
the D.A. Garden supplies have prospered through a steady stream of the
customers who are happy with the quality and the cost of the goods and services,
as well as the professional advice. In here, we’re going to give D.A Garden
supplies an entirely interpretation about the situation they’re facing.

2. Preliminary Project Scope

Project Name: D.A. Garden Supplies


Owner: David and Alison
Sponsor: David and Alison
Stakeholder: 2 full time gardeners, a part-time landscaping consultant and 2
part-time cashiers, 2 full time staff, one part-time staff work in lunch time and
weeks, Alison’s daughter and the customers

3. Background

About three years ago, D.A Garden Supplies decided to extend the café
operations to include a larger lunch menu, more tables and extended the trading
hours. The café offers takeaway food as well as sit-in dining and the menu
includes a variety of beverages, made-to-order sandwiches, salads, gourmet
pies/sausages rolls, quiches and savoury slices, chips/wedges, cakes and slices,
ice creams and sorbets, a kids menu and soups and casseroles in winter.

Unfortunately, the extend business did not boost the growth of the total business.
In contrast, the total business net profit has dropped steadily over the last two
years, although gross revenue remains acceptable.

 Nursery sales have dropped by 5% in the last two years. These sales of these
products currently contribute 41% to overall profits.
 Garden Supplies sales have also dropped by 5%, although the last year saw
an increase in drought proofing related products such as mulch. These
products currently contribute 34% to overall profits.
 Landscaping project numbers have been flat; however, the size and profit on
each project has grown slightly. This has meant steady contribution to overall
profits of 10%.
 Café trade has been steadily increasing for the last three years and as result
profits from this have been growing at a rate of2–3% per annum, currently
contributing 15% to the overall profit of the business.
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In this proposal, we are going to identify what the situations and problem that
D.A. Garden Supplies are facing. According to the problem, we will make a
comprehensive market research for their reference.

4. Target market or Market Information

D.A Garden Supplies customers can be broken down into four groups, families,
workers, students and retire people. The workers, students and retire groups are
larger than families groups by virtue of the fact that they used to have a cup of
coffee and breakfast in the beginning of morning, it normally on the business day
(Mon-Fri). Therefore, workers who have an ability to earn money and they’re lazy
to cook after work, so they would like to dine outside and buy take away. The
families group are normally on weekend. As we can see the frequency of the
customers will be workers, students and retire groups. The demographics of the
groups are:

 Groups  Age  Income

 Workers  18-45  $500+/week

 Students  10-18+  /

 Retire  45-70+  /

 Families  6-70+  $1000/Week

 Marketing Objectives

 Develop brand awareness through a steady, month to month increase of new


customers.
 Develop an increase in sales while achieving a status quo state or
decrease in marketing expenses.
 Develop awareness of the structured conversation system measured by
customers coming to the Grog Shop solely for meeting people.

 Financial Objectives

 A double digit growth rate for each future year.


 Reduce the variable costs through efficiency gains.
 Reach profitability within the first year.
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 Positioning

D.A Garden Supplies will position itself as a reasonably priced tapas/take away
bar/coffee/ restaurant/ nursery shop that has an innovative, effective system for
allowing single to meet each other.

D.A Garden Supplies positioning will leverage their competitive edge:

 A unique approach to getting singles together called the structured


conversation system. This system was detailed in the Product and Services
section, please refer to that section for more information.
 This system is a competitive edge because most bars/taverns do not have a
niche that they are concentrating on. While every bar or coffee shop has a
certain "flavor" and that is why someone will choose one bar or another, the
flavor is only surface deep. The business model of the establishment is to sell
alcohol and provide a social setting. Beyond these two values, there is little
other genuine value that the establishments try to provide.
 D.A Garden Supplies is distinguished by the fact that their business model
concentrates on developing value for customers beyond serving drinks. D.A
Garden develops an effective, albeit inherently structured, social setting
that encourages meeting like-minded individuals. Providing the drinks is the
source of income, an ancillary part of the business model. Generating value
for the customers is the main focus, if the customers are happy then the
revenue will follow (assuming of course that proper marketing and financial
controls are employed). Concentrating on the client's needs beyond serving
alcohol is the distinguishing characteristic that will allow D.A Garden Supplies
to rapidly gain market share.

 Strategies

The single objective is to position the D.A Garden Supplies as the premier place
for young professional singles to meet like-minded individuals. The marketing
strategy will seek to first create customer awareness regarding their services
offered, develop that customer base, and work toward building customer loyalty
and referrals.

The message D.A Garden Supplies will seek to communicate is that D.A
Garden Supplies is THE place to meet intelligent singles. This message will be
communicated through a variety of methods. The first method will be
advertisements. The bulk of the advertisements will be in the Willamette Weekly,
a weekly entertainment guide in Portland that has impressive readership
numbers for the desired target population.

Another method will be through establishing strategic relationships with


companies that have similar demographics such as the Multnomah Athletic
Club. Establishing a mutually beneficial relationship will allow both
organizations to develop visibility for each other.

The other form of advertising will be using "grassroots" methods where


customers will be given coupons for their friends to try D.A Garden Supplies for
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the first time. The coupon will be an economic incentive for the newcomer to try
D.A Garden Supplies. The coupon also has the added force of a referral from a
friend.

 Marketing Mix

D.A Garden Supplies’ marketing mix is comprised of these following approaches


to pricing, distribution, advertising and promotion, and customer service.

 Pricing: the pricing scheme is based on standard industry practices.


 Distribution: all services and products will be distributed from D.A Garden
Supplies’ retail space.
 Advertising and promotion: the most successful advertising will be with
Willamette Weekly. Additionally, strategic relationships will be developed with
companies such as Multnomah Athletic Club as well as use of a grassroots
promotion system.
 Customer service: obsessive customer attention is the mantra. D.A Garden
Supplies’ philosophy is to do whatever needs to be done to impress the
customer. While this could reduce short-term profits, it will strengthen long-
term profitability.

5. Market Situation

 Competition
There is a new café opened in a small strip of shops attached to a business
park. The trading hours of the new café is from Mon-Fri, 7:00am-15:00pm. In
contrast, the D.A Garden Supplies, they’re located in the main road, the
opposite of a small suburb of the shopping centre. The trading hours is from
Mon-Sun, 9:00am -18:00pm. The situation as mentioned above, we can come
out with below;

 More competitors like franchising coffee and takeaway store around the
shopping mall
 Long trading hours and days which increase the high amount of operation
cost
 Technical equipment required

 Customers
 Loyalty customers
 Frequent customers
 passengers

 Product & Services


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The difference between D.A Garden Supplies and the new café, the former is
mainly offering takeaway food, sit-in dining and the menu includes a variety of
beverages, made-to-order sandwiches, salads, gourmet pies/sausages rolls,
quiches and savoury slices, chips/wedges, cakes and slices, ice creams and
sorbets, a kids menu and soups and casseroles in winter. The latter is only
offering breakfast and lunch, specialising in gourmet food and beverages.

 Price
 Offering lower prices

 Promotion
 The one of the reason of the D.A. café profitless, I think it lack of
promotion message for the café to attract customers, like membership
cards, Day of special, birthday discount or monthly promotion.

 Place
D.A is the opposite of the small sunburn of the shopping centre, the fact is there
are many franchise store of café and take away shop. It increases the competitor
of D.A.

6. Resource Required
In D.A Garden Supplies’ market research, we will look for three aspects which
are Human Resources, Financial Resource and Physical Resource to clearly
identify the requirement and the availability under each of the categories.

 Human resources refer to the actual people that will be required, and
available to undertake the tasks associated with the project. Care needs to
be taken here to ensure that you do not underestimate the requirements in
the area by not adequately allowing for:
 Length of the working day
 Planned and unplanned absences
 Overall availability, like what other commitments each individual may
have in the workplace and how these will affect how much they can
work on the new project
 A source of back up staff

 Financial resources are about ensuring that you have adequate budget
allocated to cover all costs associated with the project. You will also need to
have a means for tracking expenditure accurately so that the project does
not exceed its budget. While it is difficult in the early planning stages to the
precise, you should try to ensure that your budget adequately plans for:
 Staff costs
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 Equipment
 Location/premises costs
 Paid research
 External expenditure related to the collection or analysis of the research
data

 Physical resources refer to the equipment and tools that will be needed to
undertake the research project. Ensure you have identified all physical
resource including
 Electronic equipment and software
 Research tools and instruments
 Product samples
 Location or premises to run the research project or to conduct the
research.

7. External Market Research


 The use of a specialist market research organisation to assist in collecting
and analysing primary data
 The purchase of secondary data
 Use of external labour, such as contract or temporary staff
 Weather
 Government source
 Publication

8. Market Research Method

a. Exploratory Research
An exploratory study forces you to focus the scope of your project. It helps
you anticipate the problems and variables that might arise in your project.
Perhaps the most common problem is size.

b. Descriptive Research

An exploratory study helped you establish what you are selling, but the
descriptive study will help you find your market and understand your
customer. There are different kinds of studies you can implement to better
understand your market. Consider the following descriptive studies:

 Market potential: description of the number of potential customers of a product.


 Market-share: identification of the share of the market received by your
product, company and your competitors.
 Sales analysis: description of sales by territory, type of account, size or model
of product.
 Product research: identification and comparison of functional features and
specifications of com- petitive products.
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 Promotion research: description of the demographic characteristics of the


audience being reached by the current advertising program.
 Distribution research: determining the number and location of retailers
handling the company’s products. These are supplied by wholesalers and
distributed by the company.
 Pricing research: identifying competitors’ prices by geographic area

c. Causal Research
Causal Research explores the effect of one thing on another and more
specifically, the effect of one variable on another. The research is used to
measure what impact a specific change will have on existing norms and
allows market researchers to predict hypothetical scenarios upon which a
company can base its business plan. For example, if a clothing company
currently sells blue denim jeans, causal research can measure the impact of
the company changing the product design to the colour white. Following the
research, company bosses will be able to decide whether changing the
colour of the jeans to white would be profitable.

To summarise, causal research is a way of seeing how actions now will


affect a business in the future.

9. Types of data collections

a. Primary Reassert data


Surveys are perhaps the most widely known and utilized method when it
comes to market research.

b. Secondary research data


Secondary research is simply the act of seeking out existing research and
data. Secondary data could be US Census data, Twitter comments, journals,
and much more. The best thing about secondary research is that is it often
free and it usually can be done quickly.

c. Formal and informal research data


Informal Research
 Focus groups
 Interviews
Formal Research
 Experiments and field trials involve scientific testing, where specific
variables and hypotheses can be tested.
 Observational research can come in a different shapes and sizes.

d. Government statistics
 White page
 Yellow page
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 Government website

e. Trade and business association


 Be a member of trade and business association and get benefit on it.
They will post your business on the trade magazine and get more
people to know about your business.

f. Quantitative research data


 surveys on customer return frequency
 sales figures
 industry product sales numbers
 online or phone questionnaires
 Financial trends

10. Draft research objective


 Determine size of gardening product and dining market
 Describe the positioning, unit selling price, market share of main
competitors
 Estimated market and competition for the next 2years
 Compare profile of D.A Garden Supplies and non D.A Garden Supplies
customers
 Determine what non-users of the target group know and feel about D.A
Garden Supplies and their satisfaction

11. Design of sample


Our research method plan will depend on the information that we need to collect
in order to understand and analyse the current gardening product and dining
restaurant market in the Australia, and how the customers react towards our
product and become an frequency customers of D.A Garden Supplies.

After gathering some basic information and online survey results about “D.A
Garden Supplies, we are already in the descriptive research process, which is
undertaken to describe answers to our research question. In this case, we would
like to know more about who are our customers, their interests, behaviours, how
do they make their decisions and choices when buying our products, how
important are ingredients, prices, and design for customers, and the attitudes of
those products non-users as well.

Apart from some basic magazines and periodicals, library resources, online and
offline databases research, our group also plans to conduct the research by
interviewing people at the streets and shopping mall or any other public area
where D.A Garden Supplies products are sold. Through interview research
section, we want to get a full understanding of people’s impression and
expression about D.A Garden Supplies, and to learn more about their answers,
but this is very time costing and hard to compare and analyze.

In addition, we are going to spread our research in the form of questionnaire of at


least 240 people, which means each of our group member will have to conduct
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his/her survey for 40 people and we consider the whole questionnaire research
process will last around 1 week. This method will get us lots of information from
people in a very short time. It is anonymous and inexpensive to compare and
analyze the information and the data as well. But the result might not be a full
story.

We also consider observing people in the streets or in amusement parks where


D.A Garden Supplies are sold. We will gather more accurate information from
people’s buying behaviours and their attitudes towards purchasing.

Sampling Plan
Our group plans to develop and spread questionnaire in the park for people who
interested in gardening or in the shopping mall and streets for the people who
loves to eat. We have to get sample for at least 240 people (each group member
will have the responsibility at least 40 people).

12. Development of hypotheses

a. Competition

According to the situation of D.A. Garden Supplies, we’re giving some advice
to them as following;

 Cut down the trading hours from Mon-Sun 9:00-18:00 to Mon – Fri 7:00 –
15:30, it could totally decrease the operation costs and reduce the human
resource.
 Relocated the café from the main road to the trafficking area aim to attract
more customer
 Renovation of the café to make it unique or theme café, like japanse
theme or carton theme café..
 Buy the lastest café machine in order to give the fast service and best
product to customers.

b. Customers

D.A. Garden Supplies may create their own customer database and divide the
customer as the category below;

 Loyal Customers: They represent no more than 20% of our customer


base, but make up more than 50% of our sales.

 Discount Customers: They shop our stores frequently, but make their
decisions based on the size of our markdowns.
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 Impulse Customers: They do not have buying a particular item at the top
of their “To Do” list, but come into the store on a whim. They will purchase
what seems good at the time.

 Need-Based Customers: They have a specific intention to buy a


particular type of item.

 Wandering Customers: They have no specific need or desire in mind


when they come into the store. Rather, they want a sense of experience
and/or community.

If we are serious about growing our business, we need to focus our effort on
the loyal customers, and merchandise our store to leverage the impulse
shoppers. The other three types of customers do represent a segment of our
business, but they can also cause us to misdirect our resources if we put too
much emphasis on them.

c. Product & Services

Compare with other café, D.A Garden Supplies are offering a lot of product,
the suggestion here, we would like them to make the product be specific with
more flavours, or they may do the ordering electronic like remote ordering
which can reduce the cost of the production and the more efficiency. Hence,
sometimes, D.A Garden Supplies may give customer some surprises, like
Day of the choice, delivery service and seasonal fusions.

d. Price

As D.A providing the lower price and fast service to customer, which shows
that they don’t have a well financial plan to maintain their café. Here we will
suggest,

 For some of the product, they may increase 5-10% product price in order
to get balance with their operation cost.
 Looking for the cheapest supplier

e. Promotion

In order to see the growth of business, promotion is the most important action
to keep the existing customer and appeal a new customer. D.A Garden can
be doing some simple things by taking the below actions,

 Membership cards which maintain the relationship with existing customers


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 Monthly promotion and Quarterly promotion in order to appeal more new


customer and keep the existing customer
 Gift voucher for special occasions
 Brand switching
 Co-branding with other food manufacturing

f. Place
 Coffee shops are places at very strategic positions and highly trafficking
areas to attract more customers
 Should be located the central of residency area which people get the
coffee easily

13. Relevant Legislation

 Ethical Practices

Ethics are principles of correct conduct that shape the decisions people or
organisations make. Ethical practice in marketing involves deliberately applying
the standards of fairness when developing and delivering marketing campaigns.
For example, the Australian Direct Marketing Association, more commonly known
as ADMA, also has an e-marketing code of conduct. The new code will sit
alongside Australia’s anti-spam legislation introduced in April 2008 and will be
binding for all Australian organisations that market through unsolicited email or
SMS as a form of marketing, as well as third parties who market on behalf of the
clients.

 Anti-discrimination legislation

Laws concerning discrimination are made at both the federal and state level.
Lodging complaint on the grounds of discrimination of race, sex, disability and
age will be covered by this legislation. Commonwealth and state/territory laws
generally cover the same areas of discrimination. On occasion, there are “gaps”
in the protection that is offered between different states and territories and at the
Commonwealth level, but marketing organisation should always adhere to best
practice and ensure that he interests of their workers are protected at all times.

 Principles of equal opportunity, equity and diversity

Equal opportunity means that every person can participate freely and equally in
areas of public life such as in the workplace, in education, or in accessing goods
and services. Discrimination is treating, or proposing to treat, someone
unfavourably or bullying them because of a personal characteristic protected by
law. Equal opportunity law aims to promote everyone's right to equal
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opportunities; eliminate, as far as possible, discrimination and sexual harassment;


and provide redress for people whose rights have been breached.

All employees, students, parents, school council members, contractors and


volunteers are required to act in accordance with equal opportunity, anti-
discrimination, harassment and vilification legislation. We all have a
responsibility to ensure department workplaces including schools are respectful,
safe and inclusive and free of discrimination, harassment, vilification and
otherwise unlawful and unacceptable behaviours.

Equal opportunity policy in the Department is not only about compliance with
legal procedure, but also good management practice. The CORE Values of the
Department uphold the principles of respect and diversity providing fairness and
equal opportunity. This helps the Department to be an attractive organisation
and safe workplace for all. Managers and principals are required to ensure that
equal opportunity and anti-harassment policy, legislation and supporting diversity
principles and practices are integrated into appropriate workplace plans and
activities.

 Trade practices act

False advertising is sometimes called deceptive advertising. It is the use of false


or misleading statements in advertising. Advertising has the potential to
persuade people into buying products and / or services they might otherwise not
purchase. In Australia the Trade Practices Act (TPA) came into being in 1974 as
an act of Federal Parliament. False, deceptive and / or misleading advertising
made by Australian businesses make them liable for prosecution under the TPA.

 Privacy laws

The National Privacy Principles in the Commonwealth Privacy Act protect the
personal information of consumers. Personal information passes through the
public area for many reasons, but it is, nonetheless, private information and must
not be harvested, handled or exploited by private enterprise. Each state and
territory adapts these principles to fit into their own privacy policies and
procedures.

The National Privacy Principles cover many large and some small business in the
private sector and all private health service providers. Coverage extends widely
to schools, charities, direct marketing agencies, sports clubs, doctors, chemists,
retailers, banks and insurance companies, just to name a few. The ten National
Privacy Principles in the Federal Privacy Act set out rules for the way these
organisations and small businesses must collect personal information, the quality
of the information, how it is kept secure and how the information is then used or
disclosed. Individuals can make a complaint if they think their information has
been mishandled.
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 Codes of practices

Codes of practice are developed through consultation with representatives from


government agencies, employers, industry contacts and special interest groups.
Codes of practice should be followed unless there is an alternative course of
action that achieves the same or better standards.
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14. Conclusion

The performance of D.A Garden Supplies suggests that income of their cafeteria
is continuously rising. However it contributes only a low portion to their business.
On the other hand, landscaping services has maintained its steady contribution to
the income of their business. Further, high revenue generates principally from
nursery and garden supplies sales. However, their net profit in this section is
constantly declining. Although their gross revenue is still acceptable, their
business is at risk of liquidation if decline becomes uncontrollable and
unstoppable. The management should focus reinforcing and boosting their
garden business since it makes more earnings. Moreover, instead of improving
the deals of their main business, they placed more attention on refining and
expanding the café and problem arose from this mismanagement.

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