Introduction
Many organisations rely on data and information to ensure the organisation operates efficiently, and are able to formulate strategies that are effective. To understand effectively business environment, the organisation and business has to gather information that is appropriate to a person, situation, phenomenon or problem. In other times, information that is required is already available but they need only to be extracted. However, sometime such information is hard to come along and thus the need for collecting them. Soho Cigar Shop of Tampa was established in November of 2009. It specializes in the sale of premium cigars to citizens in the city of Tampa and has seen the need to expand the business. It has already put in plans to start up a site so as to venture into the e-commerce market. Soho cigar shop wanted to conduct a survey on its current customers so that they get to understand there needs and also the survey would help the company to expand and reach out to a wider market segment.
Data can be collected and processed in two main approaches. These are primary and secondary approaches. A secondary approach gathers its information from data that has already been gathered and analysed. This information can be obtained from books and periodicals (Axinn 35). A good example of secondary data is the population census. From this data information on the age-sex structure of the population can be determined. Primary source obtains its information directly from the respondents or environment. The difference between primary and secondary sources is that primary sources provide first-hand information while the secondary sources provide second hand information. Thus, the sources of primary information are observation, interviewing and questionnaire while secondary sources are documents. This paper will discuss how the primary approach method of using a questioner to gather data is used to make a marketing survey within the Tampa area.
Methodology
Before carrying out any research, it is crucial to understand the socioeconomic-demographic characteristics of the study population; this means that it is foremost to ensure that characteristics such as socioeconomic status, educational level, age structure and ethnic background are known in the case of a marketing research (Cateora 85). Moreover, it could be helpful to understand the population interest and attitudes towards participating in the study. In this case the study was done using a questionnaire. A questionnaire can be defined as a written list of questions that the respondent will have to record answers. This phenomenon differentiates between an interview and a questionnaire in that in an interview, the interviewer asks the questions and records replies from the respondent on an interview schedule while in the case of a questionnaire the respondents records themselves their responses(Cateora 93).
This means that when utilising a questionnaire and since there is no explaining, the questions should be clear and the respondent should easily understand its contents. Moreover, the layout of the questionnaire should be easy to read and thus pleasant to the eye, while the sequence of the questions should easily be followed by the respondent; the questionnaire should generally be interactive in nature, this means that the questionnaire should be in a form that acts like it is communicating. In the case of sensitive questions, an interactive statement that explains the relevance of the question and in most cases, it is important to change the font of the question and the interactive statement should preface the questionnaire. In this case the questionnaire had 14 questions that followed the criteria.
Results
The questionnaire survey was conducted on 40 respondents and the results were tabulated as follows.
Table of Yes and No Replies
Table for Weekly Consumption
Table for Preferred brand
Table for Media used in the awareness
Table for customer Ages
Income Table
Out of the 40 respondents 35 would have preferred to make there orders from an online source. They said that it was more convenient for them to have it delivered to them rather than visiting the shop. This shows that there is a high potential for e-marketing to flourish from. 30 of the respondents have visited the Soho shop and all of them were satisfied with the range of cigar products. Two of the respondents gave a rating of 7 for the customer care and 28 gave a rating of 10 for the customer care. 24 of the respondents found the location of the shop convenient to them but 6 said that it was a bit inconvenient for them. All of the respondents gave a rating of 10 for the entertainment and the coffee the shop was offering. They all found the place to be cosy and really relaxing for them to enjoy a cigar.
All of the 40 respondents were aware that there were other cigar shops around the area. The most notable one was LIT Premium Cigar Lounge. From the table it can be seen that the respondents got this information from the internet about the shop.
Of the 40 respondents 25 gave preference to the shops that were selling cheaper cigars. 5 said that location and the convenience of the shop was important. 6 respondents preferred the quality of the products being sold while 4 went for the customer service.
Limitations
The major advantage of the questionnaire was that it had a specific objective. It was easy to get this information because it was first hand and it managed to cover a wide area of data collection.
The major disadvantage of this form of collection of data is that the data collected was so wide that tabulating it presented a challenge. Secondly getting the respondents was a daunting affair because they had to be convinced to voluntarily participate in the survey. In the questionnaire, there were some questions that really touched on the personality and lifestyle of the respondents hence it presented a challenge to convince them to answer. Like any other data collection method, questionnaire has both numerous advantages and disadvantages. Lastly it was a time consuming way of collecting of data as one had to wait to get the suitable respondents to answer the questions.
Conclusion
Data is an important component to any firm since it can be applied differently based on the requirements of the organisation. Thus, utilising the data provides means of monitoring the development of the business (Schutt 69). Marketers to understand the market share and position of the business relative to the competitors may use availability of these data. Collection of data provides a means of formulating and implementing strategies that can improve on the business environment. With this data, Soho Cigar Shop can be able to build up on its market share and reach a wider market segment.
Works Cited
Axinn, W. Mixed method data collection strategies. Cambridge: Cambridge University Press, (2006).
Cateora, P. International marketing. New York: McGraw-Hill Publishers (2008).
Schutt, R. The practice of research in criminology and criminal justice 2nd Ed. New York: Sage Publishers, (2003).