Farmacity Marketing Research Report

Introduction

This research proposal has been prepared in response to the presentation given by FarmACity

Company regarding Urban Farming in Australia. It aims to gather relevant information to

provide the best research design according to the given objectives. The specific problems and

objectives will be outlined and addressed so our client can decide which Urban Farming

initiatives are suitable for the Australian target market.

Background

Due to the decline in suitable agricultural land, misuse of water and climate changes, food

prices have been rising all over the world. Currently, parts of the world already live in poverty

and experience food shortages. With the natural rise in our global population during the next

century, there is a fear that our current food supply may be insufficient. Hence, to prevent this

potential situation, many initiatives for Urban Farming have been started. To unite these

efforts and create a larger international impact, a network needs to be created. Our client aims

to influence Australian cities to do the same. In this report, we first focus our efforts on Perth

City.

Management decision problem

The client has provided information on the challenges faced in supporting and spreading

existing initiatives on Urban Farming. These problems include the following issues that the

client requires information on to assist them in achieving their desired outcomes.

* How many people are aware of Urban Farming?

* Who will be interested in Urban Farming?

* Which medium of communication will be most effective in reaching them?

* Feasibility of Urban Farming in Perth?

To help answer these issues, the overall purpose of study will be to find out and explore how

to increase awareness and attract interest in Urban Farming.

Market research problem

Based on the management decision problem, the scope of our market research problem is: To

gather information on the current level of awareness on Urban Farming in Perth and explore

ways to increase this by finding out reasons for current level of activity. The following are our

research objectives:

Determining the current level of awareness of Urban Farming in Perth

After determining the current level of awareness, we can design the rest of our research

efforts appropriately. Thus, we will know how much focus should be put on raising awareness

and identify ways to reach these groups of people. This group will later be segmented into age

and gender variables.

To identify people who are unaware of Urban Farming and how to reach this group

The objective is to determine which form of media is most suitable for reaching those who are

unaware of Urban Farming. Different demographics would mean different methods of

communication.

To identify people who are aware of Urban Farming but are not involved in it

This objective is applicable to everyone who can potentially engage in Urban Farming.

Overcoming these lack of motivations will help increase active interest in Urban Farming

amongst those who know or do not know of it.

To determine what interests current/potential Urban Farmers

This last objective will indicate which Urban Farming initiatives will attract people who are

already practicing Urban Farming or interested to. By understanding the needs and wants of

current Urban Farmers, our client can select and promote initiatives that will be relevant to

these people.

Research design

Our research design is developed to help accomplish our research goals. There are many

different types of research designs and careful consideration must be given in choosing the

most appropriate design. In practice, researchers can use a mix of research designs that would

most accurately attain his desired results. Based on our goals, we have chosen surveys and

focus group interviews to conduct our research.

Surveys

This research method is a conclusive research design. In particular, it is a descriptive research

method as it will help us find out characteristics of our target group. The advantages of this

method are that it is factual, cost and time effective. As it is descriptive in nature, we can

determine statistics like, percentage of target group who practice Urban Farming. Also, given

that our client is a small-scale company, this method would be cost effective for them yet still

be able to achieve the desired sample size so statistical techniques can be applied later. Lastly,

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