CIBTAC COMPLEMENTARY THERAPIES ASSIGNMENT

sig53

Hi everyone.
I desperately need help with an assignment. I am a massage student and have been given an assignment on on market analysis. I haven't a clue about commerce, business studies or market research. Please can someone help me. I am not asking to do this for me, only an example of what is required of me. I have to submit this assignment in two weeks and my mind is blank. Here are the questions:
* A market analysis to ascertain the popularity, scope and availability of complementary and alternative medicine.
* The importance of analysing data collected from the market analysis.
* The importance of identifying related sectors in terms of further career progression.

Analysis of findings may be presented in any of the followin formats:

• Written report
• chart
• spider diagram
• graph
• other pictorial presentations

Would be most grateful for some guidence how I am to answer these questions.
many thanks.

looksee

As a masseur you are going to have to find a job. Or create one for yourself. That's when you will need this information.

So look at it from a strictly practical point of view and don't worry about not having a commerce qualification!

The first question is asking you to look around your town (market analysis) and identify all the places where massage is available. Could be massage parlours, beauticians, sports centres, you think of more. How popular are they - look at their opening hours, how many staff do they employ (you might have to be a bit careful about collecting this information). Scope - all the different types of massage - sports massage, indian head massage, etc. Do they offer or describe themselves as alternative or complementary therapy.

That's your basic information. Present this information in one of the ways suggested.

Also say why it is important to examine this information
and
how knowing all this is going to help your career progression.

This is just my translation of the questions, but it may help you figure out where to start!

sig53

Oh looksee thank you very much for your help. You have put it into plain english for me.
So supposing I were to make a wall chart with a map of north east Dublin in the center and having found on the internet all the places close to my home who do the various types of massage, I could do a kind of spider chart showing where these therapy centers are, and a list of therapies with some kind of symbols beside them. Would this be correct?
How am I to find out how popular they are or the number of staff? Should I ring them up or visit them? They would hardly reveal this type of info to the public! As I see it there are about 5 in a radius of about 12 miles from my home which is where I would hope to work from at least until the family home is sold.
thanks a lot for your time and patience.

looksee

In fact the 'market' is the people who would buy the product/use the service but the rest of the sentence seems to imply that you are looking at what is there. You would have to do a very big survey to find enough people who would tell you they do or would use a masseur, and that would not give you the scope or availability of the service. It would be a good idea to ask which information the lecturer wants.

Yes the idea you have to present the info sounds ok to me. As to popularity, well see what the opening hours are, if they are closed Mondays and weekends and not open till 11am they are only ticking over. Stand across the road and see how many people come in and out in an hour (the changeover is likely to be on the hour). Do they have a receptionist (are they busy enough to afford one).


You could ring them and tell them you are a student doing a survey, but chances are you will get a receptionist who will not give information, or an owner who is in the middle of a massage and not willing to give you time, so you will have to tread carefully.

sig53

Many thanks looksee, you have been a great help. It's all is bit clearer to me now. She did give us a handout with the assignment paper which is supposed to help explain what is required, but even that is gobbled e gu to my poor brain. I think I understand what is required, but I am lost as to how to do the research and put it onto paper. It reads:
" good practice would involve assessing the local region to establish some core statistical data. Questions of importance include:
* population size and distribution into gender, age and income profiles. ie. who are my customers?
* Service providers - existing therapists and the range of services provided. It is important to identify competitors to assess the feasibility of entering the market in the context of the available pool of customers. * assess the range of treatments, pricing and service provision e.g. high street, shopping centre, destination spa, hotel, home service and consider how one might enter the market and establish a point of difference and build a clientele."