Guides: Marketing: UO MARK 1016: Assessment 2

1. MARK 1016: Assessment 2

For Assessment Two you will need to prepare a 2500-word report. For this report you will need to anaylse and discuss data and write an executive summary. Please see your course website for the full assessment details.

For you assignment you are expected to use scholarly sources, sometimes referred to as peer reviewed.

Peer review is one accepted measure of quality. So, if you are unsure about the quality of an article, checking whether the journal it was published in is peer reviewed is a good place to start. If the journal is peer reviewed, you can be confident that the article is scholarly.
Watch the Peer Review in 3 Minutes video (3 min 15 sec):

More help:

Anatomy of a scholarly article
An interactive resource showing the parts of a scholarly article. By NCSU Libraries.
How to find peer reviewed journal articles (PDF)
This resource discusses, scholarly articles, Peer reviewed articles and scholarly books.
Scholarly Sources Explained (2 min 22 sec)
Learn why scholarly sources are important to use and how you can identify them.

When evaluating scholarly sources you should consider:

Accuracy	Are arguments supported with independent evidence? What types?
Audience	Is it intended for a general audience or someone familiar with the research in the subject?
Authors	What are their qualifications (e.g. advanced degree with years researching)?
Content	Is the content within your research scope? Is it what you are looking for?
Currency	Check the publication date. Are recent developments considered?
Language	Is it of a higher level language and does it use discipline-specific terminology?
Peer review	Is it peer reviewed? Most books and articles are peer reviewed, before being accepted, as part of the publishing process. However, be careful because there are some publishers who simply publish what they are given. For example, they will take a thesis and re-badge it as a book without any editorial intervention.
Publisher	Is the publisher reputable (see 'peer review')?
References	Are in-text citations and references given? Can you easily follow them up?

3. Plan your search

To complete your report you will need to find a range of relevant resources. To successfully search for resources you will need to carefully read the questions and identify keywords to search for.

Examples of keywords:

"consumer behaviour"	"purchasing behaviour"
"customer satisfaction"	motivations
attitudes	perceptions

Use AND and OR to connect your words together, and use quotation makers to keep phrases together.
Use Refine my results on the left hand side of the page to filter your results by date, full text online, peer reviewed etc.

An example search in the Library Collection:

Remember: Don't forget to refine your search as you continue to read and discover new and more relevant keywords. Your first search will not be your last.

How to plan your search (PDF)
This resource explains how to combine and connect search terms using OR, AND, NOT.
Watch this short video on how to Plan Your Search (2:26)

4. Recommended databases

Passport GMID logo

Passport GMID
Is a global market research database which provides detailed data and insight into consumer and industrial markets and analysis on future trends.

Below is an interactive book which will show you how to find industry information using Passport. You will need to adapt the example to your current scenario.
Select the button to view in full screen.

Statista
Is the leading statistics portal for market data, market research, and market studies. In this database you can find statistics relating to companies, industries, and comsumers, such as:

Brand and company reports
Dossiers, studies and reports relating to the tea and confectionery industry
Statistics relating to the confectionery industry
Topics relating to the confectionery industry
Free to publish charts in presentations, website and marketing materials
Download diagrams as Graphic (PNG), Excel (XLS), PowerPoint (PPT) or PDF

How to use Statista

WARC logo

WARC
Is an online service offering the best marketing and advertising practice, evidence and insights from the world's leading brands.

There are a number of ways to search WARC.

Use the main search bar to search a brand, company, industry, or topic.

From the results screen, apply filters from the left to your search.

You can also select Browse by interest > catagories from the hamburger menu on the right.

Select a topic such as Confectionery (under food). you can also add keywords using the 'search within' filter from the results scree

Add keywords to a search

IBIS World
Contains detailed reports analysing selected Australian industry sectors.
Business Source Ultimate
Includes information covering all areas of business including marketing, industry reports, market research reports, company profiles and much more.

Please explore the Finding information tab in the Marketing Guide for more suggestions of databases and key resources.

5. Report writing

Special considerations for reports (4 min 17 sec)
From Business Writing Principles (Judy Steiner-Williams, 2022).
Watch this video to learn the specifics of report-writing.
Note: You must be logged into the Library to access LinkedIn Learning.
Tips for better business writing (28 mins)
Watch this video to learn tips to improve the quality and impact of your writing.
This course has time stamps, so jump to the section you'd like to learn about.
Report Writing: Study help
Resources and tips for report writing.

6. Executive summary

Your report must include an executive summary.

It is a complete and concise overview of the whole report
It appears at the start of the report; however, it should be written last, once the report has been finished
It needs to be concise, providing all of the information needed for the reader to make a decision

Watch the below video (3 min 10 sec) for tips on how to write an executive summary.