Evaluate the Application of a Selected Research

(D1) Evaluate the application of a selected research method and plan, make and justify recommendations for improvement

This essay will evaluate the overall effectiveness of the data collection used to carry out and obtain information for the fashion show. This will consist of sub-headings related to the task and detailed in-depth information on what I have found out from carrying out the research in regards to the data collection methods. This will include recommendations for improvement and what I would do differently if I was to carry the research again e.g. would I use the same research methods etc to enhance a better performance for the fashion show.

Planning Stage

Considering that I had other work to do and other projects to work on, I think that the planning stage of the research did not go as well as I started the planning stage late which impacted on the process as I found myself rushing the planning stage just to stay on task. If I put more time towards the planning stage, then I think than my actual research if I went back and went back I would of have progressed better as I would have planned my research much more carefully and would have also thought about how I was going to carry out the research in more depth, this will give me time to make a pilot study so I can have preliminary research than having a blown out research on my fashion so it will enable me to avoid mistakes.

I think that I could have improved on the planning stage by sorting my work load so that I could have had more time to put towards the planning of the market research. I also think that the planning stage didn't go so well as I didn't properly think about what I wanted out of the research which could have helped me to come up with new strategies i.e. asking particular types of questions in questionnaires to gather the most relevant information which could help me to make marketing decisions. If I could have done this, then my results from the research would have been much better as I would have gathered the information which appeals the most to the purpose of why I am carrying out the research.

Primary research

The questionnaire was very effective in obtaining the information desired, the questions related specifically to the purpose and helped obtained information on what the candidates felt and thought about the fashion show. Even thought questionnaire design is a complex and time consuming process, its necessary labour to ensure valid and reliable data is collected. However most of the questions asked already had specifically designed answers that the candidate had to pick from, although this made it easier the analyze statistically, other open question designs may have provided more accurate answers to what the user thoughts and opinions were. This method effectively obtained the information by asking a serious of questions that gave the applicants a chance to put their views forward, as one of my questions was on my questionnaire was: What will your recommendations for the fashion show be? Also the question sheet was given to the students to take away so they could look at the intranet and comment with analysis on the previous fashion show this will enable them to comment on what they would like to see this year. Also this meant that the candidates were not put under pressure to fill in the sheet as they could do it in their own time while they were in there own space. Instead of me stopping and asking selected individuals the questions and rushing the answers.

In the primary research stage, there were many aspects that didn't go as well as they could have gone as the questions that were asked in the questionnaires didn't seem to capture the specific information that we needed. For example, when we wanted to find out how much the customers were willing to pay for the tickets, it was obvious that the majority of the sample of students were going to select the cheapest option because it would mean that they can pay less whereas if we were to set a question such as would you be willing to pay £3.50 for a ticket and then if not, how much would you be willing to pay? We would be able to capture their opinions and what they would really like to pay.

Questionnaires let us down as they didn't gather the important information that we needed for the fashion show, if we had asked more in depth questions targeting an audience that has already gone too a fashion. We could of found answers on what they didn't enjoy about the previous fashion show or what could be improved, this would have been a effective gained wider of opinions of students who have been and haven't attended a fashion show.

I feel I would have used the stratified sampling method so that when I am actually gathering the research, I can get a better representation of the college as I will want to know what the whole college thinks rather than just particular individuals in the college think. This is as the people in different departments might have different views towards the fashion show such people in the art department might have a different view to someone in religious studies department, so if I could get a clear representation of the whole college then it would mean that I can get everybody's view on the fashion show.

Not only this, but I would of increased my sample so that I could gather a better understanding of the different types of people. There are approximately 1500 students within the college so by only taking 40 students for a sample was truly ineffective.

Furthermore, I also think that the questionnaire should had diversity as I found out that a lot of the people that we chose to do the questionnaires hadn't at all attended any of the fashion shows from the previous year so therefore, they couldn't answer a lot of questions that we were asking as a lot of the questions were asking what they liked/disliked about any of the previous shows. So if we had diversity I feel we could had a questionnaire based on the first year and another questionnaire bases on the second year so we can have a better out view, and it alienates biasness which gains better results.

We could of looked different research types which could have been better as we only chose one of the methods which was the survey whereas if we chose another method such as the observations we could simply observed the students throughout the college to understand their behaviors'