For a specific organisation :

Develop research plan that will enable to gather both quantitative and qualitative data about internal and external conditions that affect the market and your organisation's product/ service positioning within the market.

Explain what data you are collecting and why you believe this data is relevant and useful. If you used surveys, submit the surveys and survey results to the assessor. If you used other data sources like sales figures or other research submit these also.

identify, through appropriate data analysis, trends and developments that will impact on current products/ services and/or that might offer new opportunities for the organisation.

analyse the collected data in order to develop forecasts and to make reports about the organisation's ongoing business activities.

What tools will you use to analyse the data? Explain why these tools are the best.

Once the data is analysed present it in ways that make it readable and useful, for example graphs, tables etc.

What information have you gleaned from the data analysis and how is it likely to impact on business operations, for example does it offer new opportunities or are there products and services that should be closely examined with a view to termination etc? 4Summarise the data analyses.

Analyse the market performance of existing competitors and their products or services, to identify potential opportunities or threats to the organisation. Select the necessary tools and software applications. What tools did you use to do this and what were the results? Make a visual presentation of the information.

Write a formal report on the findings of your researchon the trends and developments identified and incorporating the statistical analysis and interpretation of the market trends and developments.

Statistical analysis might include:

• measures of central tendency
• dispersion
• correlations between sets of data
• z-test, t-test, chi-square significance tests
• causal relationships
• time series analysis etc

Use the information that results from the analyses to make suggestions or recommendations about over-performing and under-performing products and services and/or about the trends and developments that will affect the way forward for the organisation.

The analyses will need to cover:

• market trends and developments comparative market information
• market performance
• under and over performing product
• forecasts developed as a result of the analysis