1HE ROLE OF MARKE1IAC RESEARCH

IA MAAACEMEA1 DECISIOA MAKIAC based OA DUBAI BAY

AQUARIUM S1ORY










repared by /itobeth Yusuph
4ss1ox consu/tont
1onscott 1oxotion 5ervices Ltd






INTRODUCTION;
In marketing, the producers always seek the potential customers to sell its products. Every
decision made in a Iirm highly depends upon the availability oI customers who are willing to pay
Ior the produced products, the Market Research is the best tool that can be used to identiIy those
customers, the design (type) oI products they like, the Quality and their ability to pay. The
decision oI perIorming a market research done by the Dubai Bay Aquarium was precisely done
as they saw there was no growth in targeted visitors thus the research helped the management on
perIorming other decisions. In view oI the Dubai Bay Aquarium story let`s look on the role oI
marketing research in management decision making.
Defining the concepts;
Marketing has many deIinitions, the better ones are those Iocused upon customer orientation
and satisIaction oI customer needs, the Iollowing are among oI the deIinitions.
It is simply stated that, Marketing is everything you do to place your product or service in the
hands oI potential customers.
Marketing by Mc Cathy`s Iour P`s reIers to the right product, in the right place, at the right time
with the right price.
Others deIined marketing in a broad way in which it involves activities such as designing,
promoting and setting the price. Thus, Marketing is an activity which results in making products
available that satisIy customer while making proIit Ior the companies that oIIers those products.
The Iollowing are the activities involved;
O Designing the product; It is concerned with eIIicient and eIIective generation and
development oI ideas through a process that leads to a new product. This is done so as
to meet customer desirability and ability to pay Ior such product. It can be done
through market research and pricing.
O Promoting the product; It is the communication link between the seller and buyer Ior
the purpose oI inIluencing, inIorming, persuading a potential buyer purchasing
decision. This can be done through advertisements, public relation and marketing
communication.
O $etting a price; This is where the producers set prices which will be aIIordable to the
customers while generating proIit Ior the company. In this way the product will be
known and available in the market with its price.
Marketing Research; is a systematic way oI obtaining inIormation that will be used in
marketing decision making. The marketing research helps on improving decision making by
identiIying the problems Iacing the market oI your product, opportunities arising and the
techniques that can be used to solve those problems. All relevant inIormation should be collected
systematically Irom all available sources.
When conducting marketing research, you may choose to do in-house research which is done by
Iirm`s own staII or by outside marketing research companies which are specialized to do
marketing research activities.
Marketing research involve six (6) steps which are;
O Problem deIining; It is simply understanding clearly the problem at hand, the
researcher should be able to identiIy the problem and its coverage so as to avoid being
too broad or too narrow.
O Develop the research plan; This plan will help on gathering inIormation needed. In
this , the researcher should decide on ;
4 Data sources
4 Research approaches
4 Research instruments
4 $ampling plans and
4 Contact methods
O Collect the inIormation; at this step, the researcher will go to the Iield to collect the
inIormation needed Ior his research. The process is costly and diIIicult but it is a very
important step in research as the inIormation collected is an essential key to research
Iindings.
O Analyze data; AIter data collection, the researcher now analyses those data, through
the use oI averages and measures oI dispersion and apply other statistical
measurements hoping to have other new discoveries that may help in problem
solving.
O Present the Iinding; the researcher now presents those Iindings which will be useIul
to the marketing decisions to be made by the management. These Iindings should be
clearly stated and understandable thus be easy Ior marketing management to make
decisions.
O Make a decision; the managers then make a decision based on the Iindings, the more
the conIidence in, and realistic oI the Iindings, the better the decision to be made.



Dubai Bay Aquarium
The Dubai Bay Aquarium is an entertainment place; the management saw that there was no
growth in targeted visitors. It had to perIorm a customer satisIaction market research to Iind out
iI there were service problems, correct them so as to increase attendance.
AIter the research they had the Iollowing Iindings;
An untapped potential group oI Iuture visitors
The best Iuture visitors were past visitors who were near the place
The more these visitors had visited in past, the more likely they were to visit in Iuture
Dubai residents were more likely to return Iollowed by Oman, $harjah and nearby
countries.
They also conducted a market research on potential best visitors this was done by building mail
lists, converting the segment into Aquarium members and advertisements with the come back
massages``.
As the managers, these Iindings were essential to the decisions they had to make. The role oI
marketing research to the Dubai Bay Aquarium management decisions where;
The research helped the management to know its customers, through the Iindings that
they had an untapped potential group oI Iuture visitors, these Iindings were useIul as
the management now could establish the techniques on how to tap such group oI
visitors.
Also those Iuture visitors were the past visitors who were near the place. This helped
the management on improving its services and establishment oI a new service oI
incremental beneIits to the average visitors and converted them into excellent repeat
advocates.
The research helped the management on making a visible market plan as the
company was able to Iorecast on the trend oI the likely visitors to the Aquarium, that
is, the more those visitors had visited in past the more likely they were to visit in the
Iuture. Likewise, the Dubai residents were more likely to return Iollowed by Oman,
$harjah & nearby countries, thereIore to plan Ior an improvement on service
rendering and to maintain those current customers by providing Quality services, in
return to capture a new market through advertisement and compete with other service
renders.
Also helped on Management aspects oI marketing mix;
On Product decision, they were able to know the kind oI service their customers
preIerred, by looking on the customers trends oI coming back to the Aquarium it`s
likely because they appreciated the services they got.
On Pricing decision, it showed that the local people were able to aIIord the costs oI
such services, likely to attract wide coverage since the services are aIIordable, they
were able to provide discount in terms oI incremental beneIits to those who mostly
visited.
On Placing decision they were able to know the coverage oI their market that is, the
local people were their best visitors Iollowed by Oman, $harjah & others Irom nearby
countries. In this placing decision, the management was able to expand its services to
especially local area around the bay as it placed its Iocus on them. Also to expand it
Irom Iar distance since the distance could be the reason why locals were able to visit
Irequently than others.
On Promotion decision, the Iindings enabled the management to start advertising as
they had to introduce mailing lists, and `come back massages`` so as to motivate
customers to come back and attract more visitors to come.

Conclusion
The conducting oI the market research done by the Dubai Bay Aquarium helped the
management to achieve its targeted goals, they were able to solve the problem they
had oI no growth oI visitors, and this was possible because they worked on all the
Iindings they acquired Irom the research.













References
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