Marketing students identify demand for a country park
Thu, 02 Jun 2016 09:26:00 BST
Pictured (L-R) are: Taras Semeniuk, Simran Giller Udhaybir Singh and Lisa Benfield with Farnley Estates Director Charles Sykes at the site of the proposed entrance hub.
As part of their second year module ‘Market Research and Consultancy’, 5 Marketing students worked on a live project investigating the demand for a country park in Huddersfield among students and young people.
A group of five students, Lisa Benfield, Simran Giller, Taras Semeniuk, Udhaybir Singh and Saria Shazad, distributed an online questionnaire asking people what activities they’d want to see in a country park and would they visit Farnley Country Park if it existed. Market research student, Simran Giller, said:
"To work on a live project was a fantastic opportunity for us as students. We had around 100 people respond to our survey, which is statistically significant and meant that our results were robust.
"As you’d expect from a student population, most of our respondents were aged between 19 and 25 years of age. More than 75 per cent of them stated that they would be willing to visit Farnley Country Park if they provided facilities that interested them."
In common with other research undertaken by Farnley Estates into leisure needs and wants of local people, many respondents asked for cycling and hiking provision. Segway provision was another popular request, which might reflect the study's younger demographic.
The students presented their findings to the Farnley Estates' team, who were impressed with the students' enthusiasm for the project. Paul Sykes, Farnley Estates Director, said:
"The students visited the Estate to find out more about our plans for Farnley Country Park, researched potential competitors and opportunities, and gave a thoroughly professional presentation. It was reassuring to hear that their results showed support among the student population for our plans."
