Action Research Project

Submitted By rgjette
Words: 2785
Pages: 12
Open Document
Action Research Project
Ryan Jette
Fall 2013 Semester
James Slobig

Introduction and Justification In a country that is purely driven by capitalism, one must due whatever possible to stay ahead of the curve. In every economic system, entrepreneurs and managers bring together natural resources, labor, and technology to produce and distribute goods and services. But the way these different elements are organized and used also reflects a nation's political ideals and its culture. In The United States, some may argue that capitalism is failing due to the uneven distribution of wealth. Fail or not, our system is run by consumers. These consumers determine the strength of the economy, and a companies ability to understand their mental inner-workings will better that companies chances of generating profit. Consumer behavior is the study of how individuals, groups, and organizations select, buy, use, and dispose of goods, services, ideas or experiences to satisfy their needs and wants. Consumers are exposed to a myriad of marketing and other external stimuli on a daily basis for which the marketer has to consider consumer characteristics and consumer psychology to successfully position a product or service. Consumer characteristics include; culture, social and personal factors and consumer psychology include motivation, perception, learning and memory. I am currently employed part time at B.J.’s Wholesale Club. At this establishment I work in customer service. I do many tasks such as returns, taking phone calls, fielding complaints and many other responsibilities. The main focus of my job however is convincing new customers to join the club. In a way, My job is more about being a salesman than anything else. The core driving force behind this establishments profits is membership fees. The average grocery store orders product from a distributor and increases the price margin between 30-40 percent. With a wholesale club however, they only increase the margin by 3-4 percent. So one can easily see how essential it is for a wholesale club to have lots of paying members. The purpose of this action research project was to see if by better understanding certain consumer behavior ideologies, I would be able to increase my rate of getting people to join this wholesale club. Culture is the underlying determinant of a person’s wants and behaviors. Our values are shaped by our cultural heritage for example. Americans value individualism, freedom, youthfulness, success whereas the British value tradition, the family, the rule of law, etc. Similarly, subcultures such as religion, racial groupings and geographical location impact on consumer behavior.
Description of Business Setting B.J.’s Wholesale club is a large box store. It is about the size of semi pro sporting event arena with 40 ft high ceilings. It is a perpetually running operation open seven days a week along with a night crew who restocks the facility at night. The average member spends around $1000 dollars a year. The sell food, meat, bakery goods, electronics, home goods clothing and eye glasses.

Description of Research Design Because businesses need to understand their consumers in order to develop products and marketing campaigns that appeal to their target audience, people in sales often spend a great deal of time learning more about what makes shoppers tick. This often involves first figuring out the target audience for a particular product including the gender, age and socioeconomic status of the typical club member. The most important reason companies studying consumer behavior is because of the central role it plays in consumer’s lives, much of the time people are thinking in the market by buying or related activities. Besides, it is important to understand consumers in order to help the company or organization achieve its objectives. Advertising managers, product designers and many others who work in profitable companies want consumers to know in order
Show More

Related Documents: Action Research Project

Essay on Cloning: Environment and Swot Internal Strength

and evaluation. Process that businesses use to understand their current environment Identify environments that businesses sould scan to obtain maketing information Internal environments Financial resources human resources location company image reaserch and development production marketing External environmesnt Demographics—the physical and social characteristics of the population Society and culture Why scan The aim is to identify trends Gaps events developments and isues that will…

Words 351 - Pages 2

Qualitative Study: Team Nursing

Ferguson & Cioffl (2011) in their qualitive research explored and described nurse managers experiences’ with a team based method to nursing care in a hospital situation. The reaserch design was a qualitive study involving 5 nurse managers. Following calls for ‘expression of interest’ in three acute care hospitals in New South Wales 4 females and one male voluntered to participate. Two of the acute hospitals were metropolitan tertiary referal and the other was a general teaching hospital. Interviews…

Words 961 - Pages 4

Essay Business Law

BUS 121 RESEARCH WORK #1 Ana Chavez 3/16/2013 PAGE #1 Once someone files a civil suit the defendant is noticed by the Sheriff’s department. They will serve the defendant a copy of the complaint and summons that has be filed. The defendant must give an answer within 30 days BUS 121 RESEARCH #2 Ana Chavez 3/16/2013 PAGE #2 A client would always want a lawyer’s fee to be one contingency basis because in case the lawyer doesn’t win the case then the client doesn’t have to pay them. I…

Words 3578 - Pages 15