Business Research

Evaluation of customer’s awareness and acceptance about a new store schedules to open in Campbellfield

(Business Research)

Table of Content

Abstract………………………………………………………………………………………………..4

1.1 Introduction……………………………………………………………..…………………..…….6

1.2 Business Significance………………………………………………..……………..……….…….6

1.3 Objectives…………………………………………………………….…………...………………6

1.4 Research questions………………………………………………….…………………………….7

1.5 Research methodology………………………………………………..………………….………..7

1.6 Research location………………………………………………….………………………………8

1.7 Data analysis……………………………………………………….…………………….………..8

1.8 Nature and form of results……………………………………….…………………….………….8

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1.9 Limitations…………………………………………………………………………….…………8

1.10 Research outline………………………………………………..…………………….….………9

2.1 Introduction……………………………………………………..………………………………11

2.2 Consumer’s acceptance and awareness leads to expansion of a brand(expansion strategies)...................................................................................................………..……………12

2.3 Customer’s awareness and Brand awareness…………………..…………..………..………….13

2.4 Customer acceptance on opening of new store …………………………………………..….…13

2.5 Influence on the new store opening ……………………………………….…………..………14

2.6 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..14

3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………..…………………..17

3.2 Methodology………………………………………………………………….…………….…17

3.3 Instruments……………………………………………………………………………………17

3.4 Sample Size…………………………………………………………………..………………18

3.5 Data collection………………………………………………………………..………………18

3.6 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………….………………18

4.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………...……….20

4.2 Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………20

4.3 Presentation of findings………………………………………………………………………20

4.3.1 Findings of demographic information

a. Gender of respondents……………………….……………………………….21

b. Age distribution………………………………………………………………21

c. Earnings of respondents……………………………………………………….22

d. Marital status of respondents…………………………………………………23

e. Education level of the respondents……………………………………………23

f. Household members……………………………………….………………….24

4.3.2 Findings on preference for buying furniture

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a. Brand preference of the respondents…………………………………………..25

b. Satisfaction from the brand respondents use…………...……………………..25

4.3.3 Findings on Respondent’s awareness about IKEA store opening

a. Respondents who heard about new store opening…………...…………….……..26

b. The source respondents get to know………………………………….…………..27

4.3.4 Findings on Respondent’s acceptability About IKEA store

a. Will respondents shop from IKEA new store?........................................................28

4.5 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………….…………..28

4.6 Recommendations…………………………………………………………………………………29

5.1 Practical implication of the research………………………………………..……………………31

5.2 Research limitations……………………………………………………………….……………..31

5.3 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………..……………32

PowerPoint presentation………………………………………………………………………………33

References……………………………………………………………………………………..38

Appendices…………………………………………………………………………………..40

Abstract

Multi-national companies have been giving customer’s satisfaction great value. They have been investing huge amounts just to satisfy their customers which contribute toward their profits. Millions of dollars are invested by them to conduct research and to design strategy that will satisfy their customers. Similarly, IKEA also wants to conduct research prior to store opening in Campbellfield.

In this research, I focused on customer’s awareness and acceptance for the store opening in Campbellfield. The search was done in Campbellfield, Australia where the IKEA store is scheduled to open. I designed questionnaires in a way I think will be best for capturing responses. I used Microsoft excel to analyze the results and my findings are presented in pie charts.

The findings reveal that people in Campbellfield are aware of IKEA new store opening in Campbellfield. They are aware of the new store opening. They are looking forward to purchase

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furniture from IKEA new store. This will make the business expanding of IKEA successful and the company can plan the expansion strategies well with the help of research conducted.

Key words: Customer’s satisfaction, Consumer’s awareness, Consumer’s acceptance, Business expansion.

Chapter 1 Research Proposal

Table of contents

1.1 Introduction…………………………………………………………………………..…….6

1.2 Business Significance………………………………………………………..……….…….6

1.3 Objectives…………………………………………………………………...………………6

1.4 Research questions………………………………………………………………………….7

1.5 Research methodology…………………………………………………………….………..7

1.6 Research location……………………………………………………………………………8

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1.7 Data analysis……………………………………………………………………….………..8

1.8 Nature and form of results……………………………………………………….………….8

1.9 Limitations……………………………………………………………………….…………8

1.10 Research outline……………………………………………………………….….………9

Business Research Topic

Evaluation of customer’s awareness and acceptance about a new store schedules to open in Campbellfield.

1.1 Introduction

Furniture giant IKEA is opening a new store in Campbellfield, third Melbourne suburb. It is planned to open in city’s north in March 2016. IKEA Australia country manager David Hood mentioned that the Campbellfield store will be the one of the ten stores worldwide whose focus is to improve the shopping experience. The idea of IKEA is still in development stage and is not disclosed. It is monitored that successful strategies are implemented by IKEA stores globally. David Hood, Australia country manager, also mentioned that they will inspect what elements can be improved even if it let them to change some of the things they normally do.

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IKEA cares about customer’s satisfaction and aims to improve their shopping experience. Prior of the opening of the new store in Campbellfield, they are concern about people’s awareness of the new store’s opening and will customers accept it and will buy furniture from the new store.

I am interested in this topic as the response will not be bogus as the store has not opened yet. Secondly I can get the response easily from my locality. Furthermore, it will be easy for me to conduct the survey.

1.2 Business Significance

The significance of this research is that it will provide IKEA with results of customer’s awareness and acceptability of their new store which is scheduled to open in Cambellfield in March 2016. This will provide IKEA to improve customer’s perspective and the image they are carrying in their mind for IKEA new store in their locality.

1.3 Objectives

- To find out potential customer’s awareness about opening of IKEA store.- To find out acceptance for new IKEA store.- To find out customers perspective about IKEA new store.- To take measures to improve customer’s shopping experience.- To take steps to influence customers and increase their awareness and acceptance for new

IKEA store.

1.4 Research Questions

1- Do furniture customers have awareness about opening of new store of IKEA in Campbellfield?

This question deals with measuring awareness of furniture buyers that do they know about opening of new IKEA store or not.

2- Do the people in Campbellfield have acceptance for new Ikea store?

This question deals with will people accept the opening of new store in IKEA and what is the level of their acceptance.

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3- What will be influence of customer’s awareness and acceptance in opening of new IKEA store in Campbellfield?

This question deals with after measuring results what are the things which could be done to increase awareness and acceptance of the new store in IKEA among customers.

1.5 Research Methodology

Research Design

Exploratory research is going to be conducted.

Research instruments

The research instruments will be survey questionnaires.

Sample Size

35 members of the target market will be selected through stratified random sampling.

Sampling Approach

Stratified random sample is selected as sampling approach.

1.6 Research Location

Research will be carried out in Campbellfied in Australia.

1.7 Data Analysis:

Data analysis will be done graphically through MS Excel.

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1.8 Nature and form of results:

Research report will be presented in hard copy as well as on soft copy.

1.9 Limitations

- Respondent may not be fair and may give bias response.- Survey will be limited to my locality only.- Respondent may not be willing to give true response.- Respondent may not be aware and do not tell for sake of his impression.- It may not be acceptable for respondent and he is just saying to be sweet.- Survey result will be limited to response of 100 people.- In random sampling, people with awareness and their valued judgment may be missed.

1.10 Research Outline

This research includes 5 chapters. Chapter 1 provides with the research proposal which covers introduction of IKEA, business significance and planning of research method.

Chapter 2 is literature review that is desk research which is supported by scholarly articles and research work from past.

Chapter 3 is methodology and data collection which states the response of respondents, how research was done and what were the expressions of respondents.. Chapter 4 contains findings and result analysis which is presented in graphical form.

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Chapter 5 is the concluding chapter that contains conclusion, future implication of the research and recommendations of the research.

Chapter 2 Literature Review

Table of contents

2.7 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………11

2.8 Consumer’s acceptance and awareness leads to expansion of a brand(expansion strategies)...................................................................................................………………12

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2.9 Customer’s awareness and Brand awareness…………………..…………..…………….13

2.10 Customer acceptance on opening of new store …………………………………..….…13

2.11 Influence on the new store opening ……………………………………….……………14

2.12 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………….14

2.1 Introduction to literature review

The survey of literature will be based on the topic that what is consumer’s acceptability and awareness of the new IKEA store which is supposed to open in Campbellfield in March 2016. The main aim of this research is to know how much people are knowledgeable about the IKEA opening a new branch and what would its customer acceptance. The research will also be about the customer’s perspective about the IKEA new store. The topics included in Literature Review are related to Business Expansion with Brand image. The topics upon which Literature Review is based are as follows:

Expansion strategies. Customer awareness and Brand awareness.

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Customer acceptance about new store. Influence of customer awareness and acceptance.

The opening of new IKEA branch as developing a new market segment or opening into new geography requires research and new marketing strategy. Although, IKEA is very much concern about customers satisfaction and is among the top ten stores world-wide who aims to improve their shopping experience, they want to find out about people’s acceptance and awareness in this topic. The results may, prior of opening the store benefit them in implementation of the strategy. The idea is given importance for making a marketing strategy carefully which will be most suitable for the business (Doolie, 2008). Big multinational company gives importance to business prior to setting a new store and spends a lot of dollars in conducting research. Marketing a business can either be successful or could also lead to complete failure. Same way, IKEA is conducting a research to improve and to earn maximum revenues out of its new store which is supposed to open in Campbellfield in March 2016. Customer’s satisfaction leading from awareness will help IKEA or any brand of similar type to grow and expand and set its marketing strategies accordingly.

The literature review will discuss the expansion strategies in detail. Scholarly articles both in favor and in against will be discussed. The literature will provide with the desk research of the topic “Evaluation of customer’s awareness and acceptance about a new store schedules to open in Campbellfield”. In the second part of the paper suggests how brand awareness or global branding actually influence customers’ acceptance.

2.2 Consumer’s acceptance and awareness leads to expansion of a brand(Expansion strategies)

Carman(1980) says that, there are certain business expansion strategies such as moving into new demography or new geographic segment, duplicating the plan of old location and also being responsive to customer needs to bring more customer acceptance . He points out the view that expansion represents risk discontinuity. He concedes that the research suggests that when risks are more and payoff is large. Management of new store may absorb significant time and attention.

In a similar way, Arnold(1998) asserted that a company expands when it is entering in a new market with existing product or entering in an existing market with a new product . The expansion of a brand depends on consumer’s acceptance and awareness (Simon, 1993). Expansion is always challenging for organizations to overcome liabilities (Hsu, 2008). On

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the other hand, it provides exposure to new market and new competitors, access to new resources, new concepts internalization, etc.

"The more far we go from culture, the more we need to understand, learn, and adapt, " says M. Ydholm(2015). He implies that a company expands not only by increasing its sales or maximizing its profits, but also by capturing more market and become the favorite of more consumers.

For instance, Statistics reveal that IKEA announced an expansion of worth 1.2 trillion by 2020. Through the strategies of IKEA in marketing, pricing, product range and design, IKEA always beat its competitors when it enters in a new market or the local competitors. (Opinion, 2015).IKEA’s plans are to capture the Australian market in next two years. This will benefit the Australian economy by creating more employment (Expansion Plans IKEA, 2014)

David Aakaar (1990) suggests that the key expansion strategy is the general perception of quality associated with the brand name . Aaker and Keller studied on eighteen proposed extensions of six brand names - McDonald, Vuarnet, Vidal Sassoon, Crest, Haagen-Dazs, and Heineken. From the study, they found that the perceived quality of the brand in its original context was the important predictor of how the expansion would be evaluated. Conversely, Ries & Trout (1981) states that the expansion may however, cannibalize the sales of original brand or damage its brand image by creating new organizations or by confusing with the current ones.

2.3 Customer’s awareness and Brand awareness

"Good communication and awareness helps an individual in decision making" (Lin.2007). Here, Lin(2007) points out this view, which emphasizes that people will be sharing the news among their friends and family which brings great customer awareness. When consumer will be aware of a certain brand and will have knowledge, he may choose to purchase from it. This means that expansion of a brand can result from good awareness among customers.

Aaker(1991) also states that Awareness is one of the four dimensions of brand equity i.e., loyalty, perceived quality, associations/differentiations and awareness. According to him, awareness in the most significant objective of brand equity. Brand awareness creates brand recognition in customer’s mind which influences their decision to buy a certain product (Keller, 2003). Brand awareness is a very important factor affecting customer’s decision and

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choice. For example, IKEA is very successful in internationalize it products well and its retailing operations are very successful (Sen, 2005). The brand image of IKEA is very good which even let the brand to have advantage over other well-known brands worldwide like WAL-MART.

Other side, it is believed that no global brand has good customer awareness until the brand actually work something for it (Gadiesh, 2007). According to him, awareness of brand is directly proportional to the efforts brand put in. Awareness is spread among people when some good act is done by the brand before or after opening its operation. Famous and well-known brands are sensitive to reputation (Aaker, 1996). As the brands are very famous, a little negative thing about the brand will spread more quickly than their good work. Interestingly, similar issues have been raised about Ikea, as Ikea also went into the horse meet scandal in 2013(Wu, 2014).

2.4 Customer’s acceptance on opening of new store

Consumer acceptance of a certain brand is highly valued attribute that leads to expansion of a brand (Desai, 2002). When a consumer accepts the quality of a particular brand, purchase from it, give it priority over other alternative present in the market, demand increases and this results in expansion of a brand.

Similarly, David Aakar(1990) states that the foremost step to gain customer acceptance is to develop a brand name and to associate it with the product class. However, a recognised name can result into market advantage. He says expansions ideally enhance the core brand.

For very long now, the global stores such as IKEA has a good acceptance level among people and satisfying customers (Jie, 2012).

Other side, there is a stereotype that would customers accept what they have not experienced themselves (Meyer,2007). This means that to accept, the customer has tried or experienced the product himself. Especially before making expensive purchase of luxury good like furniture, customers won’t be ready to pay unless he tried himself. Customers are only willing to pay if they accept it and acceptance is based on satisfaction (Hanemann, 1991). Thereby, Acceptance is dependent on satisfaction.

2.5 Influence on the new store opening

Customers’ acceptance and awareness influence a wide range of influence for producers (Wessells, 1999). So, producers are influenced by customer’s choice and rate it high. For maintaining company’s reputation and brand image, producers base their influence on

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customers (Cretu, 2007). Every time a customer is satisfied with shopping experience, he will have good brand image in his mind. Good brand image built company’s reputation.

The critically important strategic issue is the impact of the expansion on the original brand. For instance, promotions for Sunkist extensions were thought to have enhanced both name recognition and association with good health and vitality (Kesler 1987).

Other side, Awareness and acceptance of a customer cannot be measured accurately (Ryan, 1995). It emphasizes that customers’ acceptance and awareness may not tend to influence producers decision as producers cannot rely on customers. Companies base their decision on the customer’s choice and if they failed to measure their response accurately their decision will not be appropriate. Surveys for measuring unseen variable like awareness and acceptance cannot be relied completely (Cang, 2010). Unseen variables cannot be counted and may not have accurate result. And so, it won’t be very suitable for a brand like Ikea Campbellfield branch to base its influence of shop opening on customer’s awareness and acceptance.

2.6 Conclusion

After reviewing the ideas of these authors on expansion which is leading by consumer’s awareness and acceptance, we can conclude that affective implementation of new IKEA store in Campbellfield and by setting suitable brand strategies, will not only let the new store to be successfully operated and earning good revenues but will also contribute towards the overall expansion of IKEA .

Ikea has a good variety of diversified furniture which not only fit the customers demand but also satisfies their needs so that they shop again from IKEA. IKEA works hard to produce quality furniture which people worldwide are willing to buy and also ready to pay high for it (Wei, 2007). For maintaining the quality, IKEA is famous brand and people rely on its products. Reliability on a brand and acceptability are directly proportional. Which means that if people rely on a brand, they are satisfied enough to accept it. Opening of new store in Campbellfield may have a positive impact on customer’s awareness and acceptance. For which, the above literature discussed an argumentative study in favor and in against of hypothesis statement. This will help the brand like IKEA to stay competitive. Therefore, the people of Campbellfield are also expected to accept the new IKEA store in their locality.

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Chapter 3 Methodology and Data Collection

Table of Contents

3.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………..………………17

3.2 Methodology………………………………………………………………….……………17

3.3 Instruments…………………………………………………………………………………17

3.4 Sample Size…………………………………………………………………………………18

3.5 Data collection………………………………………………………………………………18

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3.6 Limitations of the study……………………………………………………………………18

3.1 Introduction

This chapter includes details about how data was collected. What were the methods of collecting data, sample collected method, research instruments and limitations of the research conducted.

Ikea is opening a store in Campbellfield around March 2016 (Jane Harper, 2014). IKEA is concern about making strategies which will help the company to set strategies in Campbellfield which are suitable in the area. Ikea’s aim is to get customer’s satisfaction (Malmo, 2011). As Ikea is a global brand, it has to care about changing taste of its customers throughout the globe in order to satisfy them. This is the main factor that contributes towards success of the brand.

3.2 Methodology

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The methods used to collect data plays a vital role in the research. Purpose of selecting data sample and to base the research on the samples available is for the aim of saving time and money resources.

Quantitative research is selected as a method of research when there is a need to conduct the survey from random sampling and to base the estimates of the whole population on those samples. Quantitative research method is used to save time and money and to drive natural results and behavior from the sample.

3.3 Instruments

To conduct the survey, Questionnaire was used as the only instrument in conducting the survey. Sample respondents were interviewed and their responses were noted in surveys. The questionnaire is designed in a way to record information in a meaningful way along with capturing the picture of IKEA new store opening in Campbellfield in a technical manner.

The questionnaire is divided in four sections. The first section includes question related to basic information; second section includes questions related preference for buying furniture; third section includes questions related awareness about IKEA store opening and fourth section includes questions related acceptability About IKEA store. Questionnaire is designed in way that it will not lose the interest of respondent. Along with straight two option questions and open-ended questions, questions to record degree of the answer chosen and preference are also structured.

The acceptance and awareness about the new store opening can be estimated from the sample population. As it will be tedious to take responses of each and every individual living in Campbellfield, the result of research is based upon the sample survey we conducted. As respondents are selected randomly, the research has high degree of accuracy in which we can base the beliefs about the whole population.

3.4 Sample Size

The sample size of 35 was chosen to base the estimates result of the whole population. Sample respondents were chosen randomly.

3.5 Data Collection

We chose approach of selecting every 5th adult individual entering different malls in Campbellfield. Data was first computed manually. Responses in 50 survey questionnaires were

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then entered in Microsoft excel. I have high degree of accuracy as respondents were selected randomly and they were actually interested in filling the survey. I got good response from people of Campbellfield which helped me a lot with my research. There good responses not only make work easier for me but it increase degree of accuracy in the research.

Even after getting very good response from the randomly selected individual, we are 95% confidence that our hypothesis are based on true responses. Reason for not being 100% confidence is that the research results are not based on any facts or scholarly articles but randomly selected people. Sometimes people are not in mood of filling the questionnaire, they may not be willing to disclose their actual believes, or they may just select positive answers in most of the questions. Even though we interviewed our respondents after they filled up the questionnaire, and pleased to get to know their interest on the subject, we still doubt 5% immaculacy and are not 100% confidence in our research results.

3.6 Limitations of this study

There were some limitations of the study in data collection process. The questionnaire was only conducted in Campbellfield. It may be possible that people having interest in the topic were not present there on the time of survey. Secondly, people may hesitate to give actual opinion. Thirdly, people may not be interested in furniture shopping; probably someone else in their family takes the responsibility.

Chapter 4 Data Analysis and discussion of results

Table of contents

4.1 Introduction………………………………………………………………………………….20

4.2 Analysis………………………………………………………………………………………20

4.3 Presentation of findings……………………………………………………………………20

4.3.1 Findings of demographic information

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a. Gender of respondents……………………….……………………………….21

b. Age distribution………………………………………………………………21

c. Earnings of respondents……………………………………………………….22

d. Marital status of respondents…………………………………………………23

e. Education level of the respondents……………………………………………23

f. Household members……………………………………….………………….24

4.3.2 Findings on preference for buying furniture

a. Brand preference of the respondents…………………………………………..25

b. Satisfaction from the brand respondents use…………...……………………..25

4.3.3 Findings on Respondent’s awareness about IKEA store opening

a. Respondents who heard about new store opening…………...………………..26

b. The source respondents get to know…………………………………………..27

4.3.4 Findings on Respondent’s acceptability About IKEA store

a. Will respondents shop from IKEA new store?..................................................28

5 Conclusion……………………………………………………………………………………..28

6 Recommendations……………………………………………………………………………29

4.1 Introduction

This chapter includes findings about consumer’s acceptance and awareness about the new IKEA store scheduled to open in Campbellfield.

The important areas on which research is based comprises of these questions on these topics.

Gender of Respondents Age Distribution of respondents Earnings of respondents Marital status of respondents Education level of the respondent

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Household members of respondents Brand preference of the respondents Satisfaction from the brand respondent use Respondents who heard about opening of new store From where the respondents heard the news of the new IKEA store opening Will respondents shop from IKEA

4.2 The analysis

The results we got from the survey questionnaires were analyzed by Microsoft Excel. Data was first entered in Excel sheet. Then charts were drawn with the help of software and to get better picture of the analysis. Responses in 35 survey questionnaires were then entered in Microsoft Excel.

4.3 Presentation of findings

Pie charts are chosen to display the analyzed results. Presentation is based on survey results. The analysis is also supported by breakdown of percentages.

4.3.1 Finding on demographic Information

a) Gender of Respondents

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16

19

GenderFemale Male

From the pie chart we can see that 54% of the respondents were male while 46% of the respondents were females. We do not have any tendency to cater more male for our survey and the results are completely based on random survey.

b) Age Distribution of respondents

15 21 26

3136

50

Age distribution

15

21

26

31

36

50

From the graph we can see that people from different age groups participated in the survey conducted. First we manually made age groups to enter the data. As age around 15 years were entered in age group of 15.

People who participated most in the survey are people around 26 years followed by people around 31 years, whereas, people who has least participation in the survey are people around 21 years followed by people of 15 years.

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From the graph above, we can conclude that older people has higher rate of participation in our survey than younger people.

c) Earnings of respondents

7%17%

29%

47%

Earnings of respondents5000 10000 15000 20000

From the graph above we can conclude that almost around half of the people who participated in our survey earn around 20000 Australian dollars in a year. Around 47% people who participated have income around 20000 Australian dollars in an year while only 7% people have income around 5000 Australian dollars in an year.

Most of respondents who participated have higher income which will be good for our survey as IKEA is a luxury brand.

d) Marital status of respondents

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3%

63%

23%

11%

Marital StatusDivorced Married Single Widow

From the graph above we can see that people who has highest rate of participation in our survey are people who are married. Only 3% of the people are divorced while 63% of the people are married. Widow has 11% while single are 23%.

Most people who participated in our survey are married.

e) Education level of the respondent

Graduate None O/A LEVELS PhD Primary school passed

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58

3 5

Education LevelTotal

From the graph above we can see that around 14 of the participants are graduated followed by 8 who are O/A level passed, whereas only 3 people are PhD followed by 5 of primary school passed and people who have no education.

Most of the people who participated in our survey have moderate education level that is graduation. People highly qualified and people with no qualification are fewer in number.

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f) Household members of respondents

2

3

5

6

613

9

7

Household membersTotal

From the graph above we can see that 9 of the respondents have 5 family members followed by 7 people who have 6 members. Only 6 respondents have 2 family members and 13 respondents have of respondents who have 3 family members.

So, we can conclude that most of our family members have 3 family members and least have 2 family members.

4.3.2 Findings on preference for buying furniture

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a) Brand preference of the respondents

60%

40%

Brand PreferenceInternational Brand Local Brand

From the graph above, we can see that 60 % of our respondents prefer international brand for buying furniture where as 40% of the respondents prefer local brand.

As more people are of higher income, it makes sense that they prefer international brand more in Campbellfield.

b) Satisfaction from the brand respondent use

Neither

satisfi

ed nor u

nsatisfied

Somew

hat sati

sfied

Somew

hat unsati

sfied

Very m

uch satisfi

ed

Very m

uch unsatisfi

ed

12

3

11

4 5

Satisfaction level from the brand

Total

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The graph shows that 12 of the respondents are “neither satisfied nor unsatisfied”, followed by 11 who are “somewhat unsatisfied” from the brand. Only 3 of the respondents are “somewhat satisfied” followed by 5 who are “very much satisfied”.

We can conclude that less number of respondents is satisfied from the brand and more are either unsatisfied or neither satisfied nor unsatisfied from the brand they are purchasing their furniture from.

4.3.3 Findings on Respondent’s awareness about IKEA store opening

a) Respondents who heard about opening of new store

23%

77%

Did you heard about IKEA store opening?

No Yes

From the graph above we can see that 23 % of our respondents did not heard about opening of new IKEA store in Campbellfield while 77% of the respondents heard the news.

Results were positive as people are aware of the Ikea store opening in their locality.

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b) From where the respondents heard the news of the new IKEA store opening

Billboard

Pamphlet

Socia

l Netw

ork

Tv ad

vertisem

ent

Word of mouth

3 4 53

20

From where you heard about IKEA store opening?

Total

From the graph above we can see that more than half of our respondents, around 20 heard the news from ‘word of mouth’. Rest 15 of the respondents heard the news from ‘ billboards’, ‘pamphlets’, ‘social media’ and ‘TV advertisement’.

People of Ikea are well aware of the new IKEA store opening and they seem excited about the news as they are communicating the news among their friends and family as proven by the survey results.

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4.3.4 Findings on Respondent’s acceptability About IKEA store

a) Will respondents shop from IKEA?

29%

71%

Will you shop from IKEA?No Yes

From the graph above we can see that 71% of our respondents are willing to shop from IKEA while only 29% are not willing to shop from IKEA.

We can conclude, from the graph above, that people will accept the IKEA store opening in Campbellfield and are looking forward to shop from the brand.

4.4 Conclusion of the analyzed result

As survey was properly organized and questions were carefully framed, we managed to retain the interest of people in our research. Even though people were randomly selected, their interest in the topic was astonishing. The possible reason could be that maybe we were capturing the responses of people who love to shop as we selected them randomly from shopping malls. The results seem accurate and are expected to have high degree of accuracy. I cannot say that research results are 100% accurate but they can be said very much accurate.

These are three cases which we can conclude from the research conducted. First, people we are aware of opening of new store in Campbellfield and have high acceptability and looking forward to shop from the store. Second, people are aware of opening of new store in Campbellfield but are not willing to accept the brand and are not interested to shop from it. Third, people are neither aware of Ikea new store opening nor they are willing to accept it in their locality.

The people who are aware of the new store opening and are willing to shop from the store are more than people who do not have any acceptance towards the brand. Hypothesis statements about testing people awareness and acceptance were true. Ikea should focus on the people who

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do not have any acceptance or awareness towards the brand. While designing the strategy, they should also give importance to these people despite having a fact that they are minority.

4.5 Recommendations

Recommendations to Ikea could be that they should plan their expansion wisely and try to become acceptable by people who do not have any acceptance and awareness about the opening of the new store. Ikea should make good advertising strategy and should also produce a low price range of furniture for the people of Campbellfield.

Chapter 5 Discussion and Conclusion

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Table of contents

5.1 Practical implication of the research…………………………………………………………31

5.2 Research limitations………………………………………………………………………..31

5.3 Conclusion…………………………………………………………………………………32

5.1 Practical Implication of the research

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People in Campbellfield are aware of IKEA store opening in Campbellfield. Some of the common reasons they wrote are that they have high degree of brand loyalty towards their existing brand and they are not willing to change; they cannot afford high prices of IKEA furniture.

Ikea will be astonished to have these amazing results that people are actually excited for the new store opening. The company can set the strategy considering the people who don’t want to switch by giving them a free chance to first buy or good discounts maybe. For capturing 100% of the furniture market, IKEA should also introduce their low-price range of furniture. The research shows that they are expected market giant in Campbellfield whereas, the research result may vary even after having a high degree of accuracy.

The research result shows that IKEA should invest more in advertisement by any suitable means for instance billboard in the same locality maybe. Many of the people who are aware of store opening got to know the news through word of mouth. People seem excited about the store opening that they spread the news among their friends or family.

People who are unaware of IKEA store opening may not be social birds or people from different hometown who came for some specific purpose in Campbellfield. As people where randomly selected, we cannot say that were they actual residents of the area or not. Other side, it will not be wrong to say that some people may not be aware of IKEA store opening and they just checked the option as the survey was for this topic.

Even though the research results about awareness among the people of Campbellfield about the store opening are satisfied as many of them stated that they are aware of. The company should take measures towards increasing awareness about the new store opening among people. For a successful expansion, setting a suitable strategy is very important (Oddou, 1991).

5.2 Research Limitations

Some of the limitations in the research conducted are that there might be response bias from the respondents. Respondents may not feel comfortable in expressing their opinion or they might not be in mood to fill the survey questionnaire.

Secondly, whole population results are expected on the results of sample. There can be variances between sample respondents and whole population.

Thirdly, we may not be successful to cater people who have more knowledge about IKEA as we limited the selection of our respondents from shopping malls.

Fourthly, as questionnaire are designed by me, I may not be able to cover more possible options which, if were included, could make research result more reliable.

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Fifthly, there are always some chances of human error, thus we cannot be 100 % confident but could be about 95% confident of the research results.

5.3 Conclusion

The objective of the performed research was to test the awareness and acceptance about the new store opening in Campbellfield. By constructing suitable research questions, after demographic introduction, acceptance and awareness were tested among the respondents.

The research results were then analyzed and finding was presented in statistical pie charts form. Suitable softwares were used to analyze the results.

I was successful to conduct a focused research which was proved be amazing results of the respondents. Answer to the entire research question were co-related and made sense. Excitement in the faces of the people while filling the survey questionnaire increased my interest on the subject.

The research results showed that people of Campbellfield have knowledge about the opening of the new IKEA store. They are aware of the store opening and are excited to shop from it. People are ready to switch from their furniture brand to IKEA. This seems like a warm welcome from the people of Campbellfield to IKEA new store opening. Their high acceptance level for the brand is a positive sign for the IKEA store opening in Campbellfield.

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Appendices

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a. Gantt chart

Activities Week 1 Week 2 Week 3 Week 4 Week 5 Week 6 Week 7 Week 8 Week 9 Week 10 Week 11 Week 12Week 13 Week 14Topic ResearchLiterature Review CompositionResearch MethodsDeveloping QuestionnairesConducting interviewsGathering responsesDrawing resultsAnalysing resultsDrawing conclusionsFinalizing reportSubmission

b. Questionnaire

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Section 1 - Respondent’s Basic Information

1. What is your gender?O Male O Female

2. What is your age?O 15-20 O 21-25 O 26-30 O 31-35 O 36-40 O 50+

3. What is your occupation?_________________________________________________________

4. How much do you earn in a year?O <$5000 O <$1000 O<$1500 O<$ 2000 O >$ 2000

5. What is your marital status?O Single O Married O Divorced O Widow

6. What is your higher education level?O Primary School passed O O/A Levels O Graduated O PhD O None

7. How many members do you have in your family/household?O 1 O 2 O 3 O 4 O 5 O 6 O 6+

Section 2- Respondent’s preference for buying furniture

8. Which brand type will you prefer to shop for furniture?O Local brand O International brand

9. Name the brand(s).______________________________________________________________

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10. Are you satisfied with that brand service?O Yes O No

11. On a scale of 1 to 5 how satisfied are you with the furniture of that brand?(1 being the highest and 5 being the lowest)

O 1 O2 O3 O4 O5

Section 3- Respondent’s awareness about IKEA store opening

12. If you are given choice of better furniture store alternative will you move?O Yes O No

13. Have you heard about any new store which will be opening soon in your locality?O Yes O No

14. If yes? From where did you heard the news?O TV advertisement O Billboard advertisement O Word of mouth O Pamphlet O Social network O Others:____________

15. Name that furniture brand?____________________________________________________________

16. Do you have any complaints from the store you purchase the furniture?O Yes O No

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17. If yes, what are those complaints?_____________________________________________________________

18. Select the key factors why you choose a furniture brand? (You can select more than one)O Quality O Price O Quality and Price O Designs O Area of in which it is located

19. If a good quality furniture is given to you for more dollars will you purchase it?O Yes O No

Section 4- Respondent’s acceptability About IKEA store

20. Did you ever heard about IKEA?O Yes O No

21. Will you prefer shopping from that new IKEA store?O Yes O No

22. Why do/don’t you prefer shopping from new IKEA store?______________________________________________________________

23. Will you buy the furniture if the IKEA store comes near you (in your locality)?O Yes O No

24. Support you answer of question # 23 with a reason.______________________________________________________________

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