1. Executive summery
This research was conducted by the Mr. Khurram Abbas the director of ABDI Consultancy Limited with the following aims and objectives.
To identify the potential of Marketing Consultancy business
To identify the real need/ importance of Marketing Consultancy in small and medium business companies
To disclose the Marketing Consultancy essential services
The researcher used the qualitative research method because through this method the values, behaviour, experiences can be found out by designing questionnaires and distributing among samples. The researcher used random sampling technique to select the samples and after gathering data the results were recorded in the table forms and after that pie, bar charts and ratios were calculated to present and understand the results. And it was concluded that all the services offered by the ABDI Consultancy Limited are of importance and companies are waiting for the company that will offer these services under single roof.
2. Introduction
Marketing consultancy is a growing business in which marketing consultants work closely with the client companies to create and implement marketing strategies. These marketing strategies are based on the nature of client’s business and their offered products and services. The marketing consultant create marketing plan, determine the marketing message for targeted customers and identify the effective marketing mix (product, price, placement and promotion, people), to achieve the organizational objectives. Marketing consultants follow the plan throughout and execute the plan by implementing the designed strategy. Marketing Consultant monitors the results and ensures that the client’s company is achieving the expected outcomes. ABDI Consultancy Limited is offering marketing consultancy services in London United Kingdom. Mr. Khurram Abbas is the director and owner of the company. Mr. Khurram Abbas will also play his role as Marketing Consultant and will perform the following tasks.
Identify the client’s requirements
Conduct the market research
Design the research objectives and select the best research methodology
Discuss the aims and objectives with clients and design the surveys and questionnaires to conduct the research
Will record the outcomes in appropriate method and will present the results to clients
After that will execute the strategy and monitor the whole process and will make necessary changes as per circumstances until the expected outcomes and client’s satisfaction.
3. Aims and objectives of research
This marketing research has been conducted for ABDI Consultancy Limited to find out the feasibility of this proposed business.
Following are the aims and objectives of this research:
To identify the potential of marketing consultancy business in UK
To identify the importance of marketing consultancy in small and medium businesses
To identify the essential marketing consultancy services
4. Research Method
Qualitative research method was selected to conduct this research to achieve above said aims and objectives. Qualitative research method is used by the researchers to find out the understanding of human behaviours, their experiences, ideas, beliefs, values and reasons. This research method is used to investigate the why and how of any decision making. Smaller and focused samples are required to conduct the research rather than to involve a large number of samples.
5. Population and Sampling
Small and medium businesses have been struggling in UK in recent past due to recession but now SME’s are thriving once again. There are about 2462 SMEs registered with London Stock exchange and most of these companies are earning profit. There are about 200 colleges, 40 universities, 5500 restaurants and 100 private clinics/ hospitals conducting their business in the London. Similarly, there are more than 500 food supplier companies, those manufacture and supply food items in and around London. BBC reports that call centres are the factories for UK in 21st Century. There are about 1800 call centres in UK, from which 400 are in London. All the small and medium size business companies are the targets for the ABDI Consultancy Limited.
The above statistics clearly show that there is a huge market for consultants especially for management and marketing services. ABDI Consultancy Limited has planned to get its share from this market and become a successful marketing consultancy within the span of 2-3 years.
6. Sampling
The small and medium business companies are the population, and the researcher has selected total sample of 50, the researcher selected about 5 companies from the each sector (educational institutes, IT and security companies, food suppliers, retailers, law firms, private doctors firms, pharmacies, restaurants, hotels, tourism companies etc.). The researcher used random sampling technique to select the samples.
7. Questionnaire
The researcher has designed the questionnaire by keeping in mind the aims and objectives of this research and by using the appropriate skills. Following questions were designed
Do you believe that marketing activities have positive impact in creating satisfaction among the customers?
Do you believe that through effective marketing strategies/ plans market share can be increased?
Do you believe in marketing activities positive impact on sales and profitability?
Have you ever hires the Marketing Consultancy Services?
Have you ever used any of the following services?
Do you believe that marketing consultancy firms can play their role in increasing market leads and profitability?
Do you believe that the all the following services were provided by the single Company?
Would you prefer to hire Marketing Consultancy that provides all following Services?
Why do you prefer that one company offer all above services?
8. Findings
After distributing the questionnaires among the samples the researcher find out the following results, recorded in the tables to avoid duplication.
Do you believe that marketing activities have positive impact in creating satisfaction among the customers?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| Total | 43 | 7 |
Do you believe that through effective marketing strategies/ plans market share can be increased?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 44 | 6 |
Do you believe in marketing activities have positive impact on sales and profitability?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 42 | 8 |
Have you ever hire the Marketing Consultancy Services?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 43 | 7 |
Have you ever used any of the following services?
(Please tick the services those you used)
| Sr. # | Services | Yes | No |
| 1 | On site Audits | 45 | 5 |
| 2 | Service benchmarking | 47 | 3 |
| 3 | KPI measurement | 46 | 4 |
| 4 | Industry benchmarking | 44 | 6 |
| 5 | Mystery shopping | 46 | 4 |
| 6 | Call centre review | 45 | 5 |
| 7 | Social media research | 44 | 6 |
| 8 | Customer studies | 48 | 2 |
| 9 | Life time value analysis | 46 | 4 |
| 10 | Competitor benchmarking | 45 | 5 |
Do you believe that marketing consultancy firms can play their role in increasing market leads and profitability?
| Yes | No | |
| Total | 45 | 5 |
Do you believe that the all the following services were provided by the single Company?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Respondents | Yes | No |
| Total | 8 | 42 |
Would you prefer to hire Marketing Consultancy that provides all following Services?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 45 | 5 |
Why do you prefer that one company offer all above services?
(Please tick the appropriate reason/ reasons)
Save time
Save money
To avoid hassle
Other………..
| Sr. # | Reason | Yes | No |
| 1 | Save time | 45 | 5 |
| 2 | Save money | 45 | 5 |
| 3 | To avoid Hassle | 43 | 7 |
| 4 | Other…NO…….. | 50 | 0 |
9. Analysis and interpretation
After recording the results in table format the researcher has used
Pie charts
Bar charts
Ratios
To make analysis and interpret the results, all the charts are given below.
Do you believe that marketing activities have positive impact in creating satisfaction among the customers?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| Total | 43 | 7 |
As the pie chart shows that 86% respondents have responded that marketing activities play their role in creating satisfaction among the customers. Whereas only 7% have been stated that they do not believe in marketing activities have positive impact in creating satisfaction among the customers. So the majority have believe that there is a relationship between customer’s satisfaction and marketing activities.
Do you believe that through effective marketing strategies/ plans market share can be increased?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 44 | 6 |
As the result showed that 88% of the respondents have responded that through marketing plans and strategies market share can be increased. Only 6% have been responded that marketing share could not be increased through effective marketing plans and strategies.
Do you believe in marketing activities positive impact on sales and profitability?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 42 | 8 |
As the chart shows that 84% respondents have believe in that sales and profitability have a link with marketing activities, it means that there is a link between marketing activities and company profitability. Whereas only 16% have responded that there is no marketing activities impact on sales and profitability.
Have you ever hire the Marketing Consultancy Services?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 44 | 6 |
Through this question the researcher came to know that 80% of the companies are using the marketing consultancy services and are benefited by them. This shows the importance of marketing consultancy services in the business organizations. 20% of the respondents have been responded that they are not using marketing consultancies.
Have you ever used any of the following services?
(Please tick the services those you used)
| Sr. # | Services | Yes | No |
| 1 | On site Audits | 45 | 5 |
| 2 | Service benchmarking | 47 | 3 |
| 3 | KPI measurement | 46 | 4 |
| 4 | Industry benchmarking | 44 | 6 |
| 5 | Mystery shopping | 46 | 4 |
| 6 | Call centre review | 45 | 5 |
| 7 | Social media research | 44 | 6 |
| 8 | Customer studies | 48 | 2 |
| 9 | Life time value analysis | 46 | 4 |
| 10 | Competitor benchmarking | 45 | 5 |
The researcher has designed the above question to understand the importance of services being used by the companies, and after gathering results it is found that majority of the respondents are using all the above stated services significantly. More than 90% are using the above stated services and nominal respondents are not using these services it is due to their business nature or lack of information. For example life time value analysis service is used by the 92% and only 8% are not using this service, similarly mystery shopping service is used by the 92% of the business companies and only 8% are not using this service and customer studies service is used by the 96% of the business companies and only 4% are not using this services.
Do you believe that the all the following services were provided by the single Company?
On site Audits, Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 8 | 42 |
84% of the respondents have been responded that no, there is still no marketing consultancy company that is offering all these services under single roof. Only 16% have responded that there are some companies those are offering above stated services under single roof. It means that the opportunity is available for the company that can provide all the above stated services under single roof. And its growth chances are high of they pay attention on the quality and price.
Do you believe that marketing consultancy firm (those offer all these services) can play their role in increasing market leads and profitability?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Respondents | Yes | No |
| Total | 45 | 5 |
All the respondents responded that if a company can offer all the above stated services they can be benefited, they can be benefited by increasing their market share and profitability. 90% respondents are agreed. 10% respondents are not agreed with the statement. It means that any new company that is going to offer these services under one roof have the opportunity to start this business.
Why do you prefer that one company offer all above services?
(Please tick the appropriate reason/ reasons)
Save time
Save money
To avoid hassle
Other………..
| Sr. # | Reason | Yes | No |
| 1 | Save time | 45 | 5 |
| 2 | Save money | 45 | 5 |
| 3 | To avoid Hassle | 50 | 0 |
| 4 | Other…NO…….. | 50 | 0 |
As the chart showed that the majority of the respondents want to save time, money and avoid the hassle, and there is no another reason. In order to save time, money and to avoid hassle people are looking for the marketing consultancy company that offer all the services under single roof.
Are you ready to hire Marketing Consultancy that provides all following high quality of Services at reasonable price?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
| 1 | 41 | 9 |
82% respondents have been responded that they are ready to hire the company that offer all the services at high quality but at reasonable price. Only 18% have been responded that, they are not willing to hire marketing consultancy that offers all the services at reasonable price.
10. Conclusion
Every organization has aims and objectives, and the main objective of business organization is to generate more and more revenue in order to get more profit and to make business growth. So for earning more money it is important to identify the customer’s needs and then after providing them products and services as per their needs, satisfaction and loyalty can be created. And in this way organizations can retain old clients and can attract new clients from the market.
It has been proved that the majority of the respondents have belief in that through marketing activities, satisfaction can be created among the clients. Majority of the respondents have been responded that there is a link between marketing strategies and market share. If the marketing strategies are appropriate then the company can increase the market share through implementing the marketing plan. Majority of the respondents have believe that sales and profitability have the link with marketing activities, if the marketing plans and strategies are appropriate the companies can earn more money. It is concluded that majority of the business firms are using the marketing consultancy services to overcome their marketing problems. This shows also the interest of business firms in marketing consultancy business operation and its demand now days.
Most of the companies are using these services (On site Audits, Service benchmarking, KPI measurement, Industry benchmarking, Mystery shopping, Call centre review, Social media research, Life time value analysis and Competitors benchmarking) offered by the ABDI Consultancy Limited, and one interesting thing is that no one company is offering these all services under one roof, ABDI Consultancy Limited is the first one company going to offer all these services under one roof at reasonable price to its client companies. All respondents have been responded that they will hire the company that will provide all the services (stated above) because the respondents want to save their time, money and avoid to hassle.
All the respondents have their interest in the marketing consultancy firm that provide all the services (On site Audits, Service benchmarking, KPI measurement, Industry benchmarking, Mystery shopping, Call centre review, Social media research, Life time value analysis and Competitors benchmarking) because they have believe in that through these services their market share and profitability will be increased as they have already the experience. And still no company is offering these all services under one roof and business owners want to save their time and money and avoid the hassle that’s why they want a company that offer them all these services at reasonable price. It means that ABDI Consultancy Limited has the opportunity to attract new clients from the market and can start its business positively.
11. Appendices
11.1 Questionnaire
Do you believe that marketing activities have positive impact in creating satisfaction among the customers?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
Do you believe that through effective marketing strategies/ plans market share can be increased?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
Do you believe in marketing activities have positive impact on sales and profitability?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
Have you ever hire the Marketing Consultancy Services?
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
Have you ever used any of the following services?
(Please tick the services those you used)
| Sr. # | Services | Yes | No |
| 1 | On site Audits | ||
| 2 | Service benchmarking | ||
| 3 | KPI measurement | ||
| 4 | Industry benchmarking | ||
| 5 | Mystery shopping | ||
| 6 | Call centre review | ||
| 7 | Social media research | ||
| 8 | Customer studies | ||
| 9 | Life time value analysis | ||
| 10 | Competitor benchmarking |
Do you believe that marketing consultancy firms can play their role in increasing market leads and profitability?
| Yes | No | |
| Total |
Do you believe that the all the following services were provided by the single Company?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Respondents | Yes | No |
| Total |
Would you prefer to hire Marketing Consultancy that provides all following Services?
On site Audits
Service benchmarking
KPI measurement
Industry benchmarking
Mystery shopping
Call centre review
Social media research
Life time value analysis
Competitors benchmarking
| Sr. # | Yes | No |
Why do you prefer that one company offer all above services?
(Please tick the appropriate reason/ reasons)
Save time
Save money
To avoid hassle
Other………..
| Sr. # | Reason | Yes | No |
| 1 | Save time | ||
| 2 | Save money | ||
| 3 | To avoid Hassle | ||
| 4 | Other…NO…….. |
Mywords 