Proposed Phonebloks Market Research (Essay Sample)

Research Brief and Research Proposal: Proposed Phonebloks Market Research
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RESEARCH BRIEF
Background
Phonebloks is seeking to commission a research on its strategic marketing and audience development plan. The planned strategic research will aim to prepare the audience for Phonebloks development, and determine support from the audience to advance the project. Phonebloks is an imaginative design of a smartphone consisting of modular elements. The final Phonebloks handset will be made up of a display panel, memory module, battery and other components of the consumer’s choice. The components are to be connected to a universal base that binds all the separate components together. Each of the individual components is to be attached to the universal base via pins, and two screws which hold everything (Forbes, 2013).
Introduction of Phonebloks implies that if an individual component breaks, it can be easily replaced without necessarily throwing away the entire unit. Moreover, Phonebloks will make it easier to upgrade individual components in phones, only requiring that the phone owner buys the wanted part and embed it. Achieving the design and product realisation demands an apps store for the hardware, at which the clients can buy and sell bloks made by their favourite brands.
Currently, Phonebloks is just a concept, with the project yet to attain the product stage. However, the concept has received overwhelming interests from potential customers all over the world (Forbes, 2013). Realising that the success of the Phonebloks will be dependent on the consumer demand, the creator of the Phonebloks idea is marshalling support for the product concept through a campaign on Thunderclap. Further, only the consumer demand may not be enough to jumpstart the project to reality, the cooperation of the hardware partners (manufacturers) will be necessary for the project to a reality.
Business Objective
The main objective overriding the design and creation of Phonebloks is the growing electronic wastes and environmental pollution resulting from dumping of electronic materials. Although Phonebloks may not solve the electronic waste problem at once, it will help to ease the growing quantity of electronic waste that is currently a threat to the environment. Secondly, the creation of Phonebloks will enable consumers to retain their phones for a longer time and save on phone buying costs. Phoneblok will replace the current smartphones which have average lifespan of two years.
Project Vision
The project will be based on the notion of ‘doing well while saving money’.
Research Objective
The proposed research will seek to understand the viability the potential consumer perception of the Phonebloks in the global mobile phone market. Although the creation has received overwhelming support through the Thunderclap campaign, the research will seek to determine the behaviour of the potential customers with regards to the proposed creation.
Target Audience
The proposed research will seek to get opinion of potential consumers all over the world. Given that the anticipated Phonebloks final products will be used across all ages, the project target audience will cut across all ages, income levels, gender and location, implying that the target audience will not be selected or eliminated based on certain demographic information.
Methodology and Reporting Requirements
Phonebloks will require the proposed study to be conducted via quantitative research approach mainly because this approach can be used to survey many participants, and may not require face-to-face interviewing. After the research, a written report and verbal presentation to the board will be required. The report is expected to be user friendly and will be shared with all the stakeholders in the Phonebloks project.
Timescale
Phonebloks has allocated four months for the market research to be completed, and the report presented to the board.
Budget
The total budget for the proposed market research is $ 20,000 + VAT. This will include all the expenses and travelling costs.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Introduction
Mobile phone is among the smallest electronic devices that people posses and use daily, but the environmental issues surrounding its existence are a growing challenge (Jain, Saloni and Hougaard, 2010). According to Gartner (2008), over 1022 million phones are sold annually, with more than half of this being the replacement sales. The proportion of replaced cell phones increases at an average annual rate of about 9 per cent, but about 4 per cent of the replacements are dumped in the landfills, posing challenge to the safety of the environment (Jain, Saloni and Hougaard, 2010). The rapid changes in the product designs and technology has discouraged mobile repairs and enhancements, implying that the demand for the new mobile phones increases while the old ones are increasingly disposed. When the old handsets are dumped in the landfills or illegally, the toxic substances may seep into the ground water, resulting in risks from the disposal of cells. This means that an urgent solution to the phone waste problem is required.
Replacement sales predictions by Gartner (2008) suggested that more phones would be retired annually by 2013 and beyond. Given the lack of proper phone reuse and recycle measures, over 7000 tons of toxic phone components were believed to be dumped in the landfills by 2012. Gartner (2008) similarly suggested that smartphone sales are mainly driven by three key factors; the users who have never had phones before, and are seeking to acquire new phones for the first time (new users); users who opt for new phones and providers and leave the old one (churn); and the existing users who obtain new phone (upgrade and replacement). Figure 1 given below is an initial project of the growth and acquisition of new phones, the basis upon which campaign for cell phone waste management can be advanced.
Source: Gartner, P. 2008. Dataquest Insight: Upgrade and Replacement; The Next Frontier for Sustaining Handset Growth, p.4.
The increase in the number of the new users in the smartphone market has been the key drive to the sale of cell phones in the past, but the saturation and decline of the market in the main markets in Europe, America and Japan means that new user acquisition has considerably dropped in the past couple of years. Currently, most cell phone wastes are as a result of replacement and upgrade of cell phones. As evidenced by ReCellular Inc. report (2008), proportion of the mobile phone consumers changing their cell phones is significantly higher than the percentage not changing their phones in a two-year span. Up to 65 per cent of the cell phone consumers in Europe, Asia and America replace their phones at least once in two years, translating to about 100 million cell phones being replaced or upgraded per year without re-use or recycling (ReCellular Inc., 2008). The main reason why the phones cannot be re-used or replaced is because of the fast pace at which the technology is trending resulting in frequent changes in the cell phone designs. Besides, most cell phones that are currently in the market are not compatible, implying that re-use and recycling of parts may not be possible. The graph in the next figure demonstrates the phone wastes annually.
Figure 2: Annual estimation of phone wastes globally
Source: Jain, D. Saloni, D. and Hougaard, M. 2010. Cell Phones: Need to better manage growing cell phone waste, p.4
Proposed solution to the Problem
The proposed cell phone environmental waste problem cannot be solved solely by the telecom companies in the respective countries, but through a joint effort by the cell phone consumers, manufacturers, telecom companies and the relevant government authorities. Phonebloks is proposing a smartphone that is designed to last; a phone that is made of detachable bloks which are connected to a base that locks all components into a solid phone (Clark, 2013). In case a block breaks, the entire phone does not have to be discarded, but the broken part can be easily replaced. If the phone gets old, it can be easily upgraded by just replacing a particular blok, not the entire phone. The concept is to work like an app store for hardware, where consumers can buy the bloks, read reviews and sell their old bloks for recycling. The beauty of the proposed smartphone design is that the consumers have at their disposal the choice to either purchase preassembled phones, or purchase bloks from their favourite brands and assemble them on their own.
The proposition requires that the designers engage both the manufactures and the target market before getting to the manufacturing phase of the Phonebloks so as to get their opinions and suggestions on the same. Overwhelming support from the potential consumers and their understanding that the current state of smartphones is not good for the environment will be vital for the success of the proposed project. Moreover, manufactures should understand that the proposed project is viable, and that it has an overwhelming support from an array of consumers globally.
Benefits of the Proposed Phonebloks
By maintaining one cell phone, and only recycling certain bloks when necessary, the increasing cell phone wastes can be effectively handled. The replacements and recycling of the bloks will certainly extend the lifetime of smartphones, and therefore delay their entry into landfills as it is in the current mobile phone industry. To the manufacturers, use of the bloks, and recycling of the same eliminates acute demand for raw materials that are required to manufacture new smartphones from scratch. Importantly, all the stakeholders in the Phonebloks scheme will have a part to play in the conservation of the environment and respons...