Marketing research

INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT – Scenario A
Over 3.1 million e-reader devices were sold in the run up to Christmas 2013. Sales in the UK were expected to grow even more in 2014.

However, although E-books currently represent 6.1 % of the total book market in the UK, equivalent to £543m of the UK’s £8.9 billion book

industry, sales appear to be declining.
In 2015the market share was forecast to grow to 10%, with consumers expected to purchase 201.6 million e-books over the next three years but

it only reached 9%. However, UK readers are spending more on paperbacks than e-books!
With consumer appetite for e-books decreasing, Waterstone’s – a multiple bookshop chain – is keen to better understand the reasons for this

change and also what type of products and/or services (both online and offline) it should now make available.
[Source: Business Week 2011 adapt& Lynch / Gizmodo 2015]
Question:
Suppose you have been commissioned as a marketing research consultant to Waterstone’s to advise them how to focus their new product / service

development plans: OUTLINE YOUR MARKETING RESEARCH OBJECTIVES

MARKSHEET for INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENT
ANNOTATED COMMENTS WILL BE MADE BUT A GENERAL OVERVIEW IS GIVEN ON THIS MARKSHEET
Marking criteria    Marks    Comments
Maximum    Allocated

Management decision / marketing problem

20

Research Objectives

60

Style / Presentation

20

TOTAL
(Weighted to 10% module mark)

100

MANAGEMENT DECISION THAT HAS TO BE TAKEN I.E. THE MARKETING PROBLEM

RESEARCH OBJECTIVES