Florist Assignment Marketing Research In this exercise, you will familiarize yourself with a couple of secondary data resources. These resources may help you in the initial stages of your research project when you are trying to formulate a research problem. Suppose that you opened a floral shop in Fort Smith a year ago. Your store’s sales revenue currently does not cover operating costs. You want to uncover the underlying problem driving your symptom of insufficient sales revenue. 1. First, visit https://library.uafs.edu/c.php?g=682310&p=4818629#22247715 This is a list of business databases available to you as a UAFS student. Click on Business Market Research Collection. You should gain automatic access when oncampus but will need to login if accessing from off-campus. Otherwise, enter through your credentials. Once you log-in, make a research about the Florists Industry and find a recent report in the related industry (e.g., Florists - Quarterly Update 5/11/2020, Nursery & Floriculture Production – Quarterly Update 7/6/2020 or newer) Review the industry report Write a short paragraph outlining current trends in the industry. What is the overall nationwide demand for flowers? How is the competitive landscape changing? Write a short paragraph outlining the primary market segments for flowers. How does income affect flower purchasing? 2. Next, visit http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/data-profiles/. This is part of the American Community Survey, an ongoing survey operated by the U.S. Census. The American Community Survey contains city and county level information on variables including education, income, home ownership, and age. Under ‘2014 - 2018 ACS 5-Year Data Profiles’, go to ‘United States’-Nation → ‘Economic Characteristics’. This contains employment, occupation, and income information for the entire country. Scroll down to the section ‘Income and Benefits’. This is the distribution of household income for the entire country. Now, go to the section ‘Choose your State, County, or Place’ on http://www.census.gov/acs/www/data/data-tables-and-tools/data-profiles/. On the ‘Refine your selection’ column, select ‘County’. Then select ‘Sebastian County” (County) or “Fort Smith City” (Place) on the ‘Select County/Place’ drop-down menu. Then click the button labeled ‘Get Data Profile’ and select ‘Economic Characteristics’. This will report the household income distribution for Sebastian. Compare the income distribution of Sebastian County or Fort Smith City to that of the entire country. Repeat this process for ‘Demographic Characteristics’. Compare the age distribution of Sebastian Country or Fort Smith City to that of the entire country. Write a short paragraph outlining how Sebastian Country compares to the country in terms of resident age and household income. Tie this information back to the primary market segments for flowers. 3. Write a short paragraph discussing the following: What are a couple of underlying problems suggested by your exploratory research? What limitations would prevent you from using these resources for a confirmatory research problem?
