¶ … marketing audit SWOT analysis, summarized a list key issues addressed marketing operation Windfall Dancers Inc. Marketing Research

Windfall Dancers Inc. is committed to its dancers and to ensuring high levels of performance. The company is nevertheless administered in a relatively artistic way, without important emphasis on the business feature. In other words, despite the emphasis on quality services, Windfall Dancers must also focus on being marketable. In essence, it has to be place more emphasis on the marketing dimension of the service and to place and promote the company in such a manner that it generates customer demands, and as such sustainable revenue.

In order to attain this objective, it is first necessary to devise a process of market research which addresses the various dimensions of the current organizational problem, namely the failure of the company to adapt to the needs of the modern day consumers, but also to promote the firm as a business agent, rather than simply the provider of dancing services.

Research objective

The objective of the research endeavor would be that of gathering relevant and necessary information which would sit at the basis of future strategic changes. In other words, the current scope of Windfall Dancers is to reposition itself in such a manner that it attracts more customers. In order to so, it starts with the creation of a research process which would identify the most important needs and features within the modern day society. Through the serving of these newly identified needs and wants, the dance lessons provider would be able to attract more customers and to attain its business objectives.

Research approach

At the level of the research approach, this is generically recognized as being either inductive, or deductive. The selection of one of the two is pegged strictly to the specific needs of the research endeavor (Saunders, Lewis and Thornhill, 2009). At a theoretical level, the inductive research is characterized by the gradual assessment of various elements and the ultimate formation of a conclusion, based on the completed observations. At the level of the deductive approach, the research process commences at a specific theory, which is then broken down into several hypotheses. The research is completed in order to test the validity of the issued hypotheses (Oriesek, 2004).

Based on the particularities of the current research project, the inductive research approach has been selected. This in essence means that the research process would commence with the analysis of various elements linked to the marketable feature of Windfall Dancers. Based on the observations, a final conclusion would be drawn and this would sit at the basis of future strategic efforts on the part of the organization.

Budget

The overall budget is of $1,100, to be allocated as follows:

$200 for the first stage of the research process

$400 for the second stage of the research process and $500 for the third stage of the research process

Data analysis

At the level of the elements to be analyzed, these are identified with the aid of the company objectives, as well as the current problems which prevent the organization from reaching its objectives. The research would spread out outside the company itself, to also assess the market and the industry. The market specifically refers to the customers, whereas the industry refers to the competition or the industry which could assist Windfall Dancers in attaining its marketing objectives. In this context then, the research process would be based on the assessment of the following elements:

The awareness of prospective customers over the firm

The access the prospective market has to the firm

The ability of Windfall Dancers to serve modern day needs

The ability of Windfall Dancers to reach customers

The ability of Windfall Dancers to draw prospective consumers towards their services.

In order to respond to these issues mentioned above, the research process would be comprised of the following stages:

1. Electronic research of the company

2. Real life research of the company

3. Discussions with the customers...

What has to be noted at this stage is that both the process phases as well as their timelines could suffer modifications as they are actually implemented. This possibility is accepted and explained by the fact that the actual research is a complex endeavor which could lead to new findings that had not been pin pointed at incipient stages, but which are nevertheless important for the objectives set. Despite the possible modifications nevertheless, the backbone of the research process remains constructed from the three stages previously mentioned as these reveal the best ability to help the company address the marketable feature of its offer.
1. Electronic research of the company

The electronic research of Windfall Dancers refers to the research of the virtual community, namely the internet, to identify how the company can be reached. Such an endeavor requires the collaboration of at least two individuals, who would use the internet in order to identify the presence of Windfall Dancers within the virtual community. It is generally accepted that the firm is only limitedly present on the internet, but the allocation of two staff members to the process is justified by the fact that the different individuals might research the company at different internet locations.

The first step at this stage would be represented by the search of the company on Google, to be then followed by the research of the company on Google local. Then, the search criteria -- the company's name and/or the syntax "dance lessons" -- would be introduced on other search engines. All the posts and articles retrieved would be saved on the hardware and would be individually read. They would be documented and all important information would be collected separately. Special emphasis would be placed on:

Forum discussions in which customers of Windfall Dancers reveal their opinions

Ease of findings articles and posts about Windfall Dancers, and Opinions of commentators, dance companies and other tertiary parties as they relate to Windfall Dancers.

The completion of this stage in the research process would allow the marketing team at Windfall Dancers to identify its shortages and to as such develop and implement the most useful strategic endeavors in the sense of correcting the problems and attaining the organizational goals.

Estimated timeline: two weeks, starting with the 1st of April and ending on the 115th of the same month.

2. Real life research of the company

The real life research of Windfall Dancers refers to the direct interaction with various categories of stakeholders and the collection of feedback from them. At a generic level, the stakeholder categories include the customers, the employees, the general public, the business partners, the governmental agencies, the non-governmental institutions and so on (Fayolle, 2010). The efforts to gathering the necessary information would be organized into two specific categories -- namely the research of materials, such as newspapers and magazines, and the interaction with the stakeholders.

Special emphasis would be placed on the following:

Incidence of articles about Windfall Dancers within the local printed media

Opinion of employees, customers and other stakeholders about the company. They would be asked to respond to questions related to the ease of finding the company, their levels of satisfaction and their proposed improvement.

Estimated timeline: one month, to start on the 15th of April 2011 and end on the 15th of Mat the same year.

3. Discussions with the customers and prospective customers

At the level of the customer interactions, these are necessary in order to identify new customer needs and integrate them in the offer. Examples of needs which could be identified at this stage include those for dancing alternatives to aerobics programs (such as Zumba), dancing lessons for special occasions -- such as weddings -- or dancing lessons to specific customer markets -- such as the elderly at a center or the children at a day care center.

At this stage, it is crucial to collect all of…