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Market Research - Lesson Plan - 2 x 1 hour lessons

A series of 'off the shelf' lesson plans and resources for use in the classroom. These lessons deal with Market Research and are relevant to the following specifications:

• AQA: Module 4
• Edexcel: Unit 4
• OCR: Module 2880

Aim:

The subject of market research, in particular the relevance of secondary research, forms the basis of the Activity associated with this lesson. The information given is from the Global New Products Database, published by the consumer intelligence providers and consultants Mintel. Students are asked to look at the information and make connections with a selected list of relevant companies. Some of the information provided may be very useful for such companies; others may be of little benefit unless there is the opportunity of accessing new markets.

The aim is for students to think creatively as well as to gain a greater understanding about how such companies might use secondary information in developing marketing strategies. Permission to use the information has been kindly given by the Mintel organisation. There have been a number of related articles on Biz/ed, for example, the impact of the Atkins Diet on businesses. Students may wish to refer to these for additional support (see In The News - Demand and Diets and Technology and Changing Social Attitudes - Activity).

Learning Objectives:

At the end of these lessons, students should be able to understand:

• The difference between primary and secondary market research
• How secondary research may be used by a business to help inform its marketing decisions
• The importance of having other information on which to base marketing decisions
• The limitations of market research in developing marketing strategies

Resources:

• PowerPoint Presentation - Market Research [194 KB]
• Mind Map - Market Research
• Activity - Market Research
• Projector and PC
• PCs for student research if required
• Video with pre-recorded selection of two sets of TV adverts (4 minutes) or a selection of magazine adverts

Lesson Structure:

Lesson 1

1. Introduce the concept of market research by brainstorming methods by which companies gather market information - use the students' own knowledge as the starting point for the lesson and seek to develop understanding from this base. (10 minutes)
2. View the pre-recorded adverts - ask students to note the company and the brand being considered in the advert and the message of the advert. (10 minutes)
3. Discuss the reasons why companies might want to gather market information - encourage students to think of specific examples of products and services linked to the TV adverts. (15 minutes)
4. Introduce a more formal approach to the subject through the PowerPoint Presentation. (15 minutes)
5. Introduce the Activity and go through the Mintel data explaining the task for the next lesson. (10 minutes)

Lesson 2

1. Re-cap on the main points drawn from the last lesson. (10 minutes)
2. Set the task and go over the questions outlining the main learning objectives of the exercise. (5 minutes)
3. Set students to work on the task. (40 minutes)
4. Re-cap on the main findings by the students/collect in the written task. (10 minutes)