Reference no: EM132488478

ADMS 4260 - Market Research - York University

MARKETING RESARCH REPORT

The Marketing Research Report assignment is designed to engage research knowledge and skills from every stage of the Research Process. It will demand time and effort commensurate with the value that it contributes to your final ADMS 4260 grade and is not the type of assignment that can be undertaken successfully at the last minute. Start early, seek guidance when you run into difficulties and strive to execute the required data analysis, translate statistical results into research insights and develop practical recommendations to resolve the difficult decision problem confronting Bethany Tate and Marty's Department Store.

Assignment: Marketing Research Report

Question 1. What type of research information is required to address Tate's concerns about increasing competition from Naples Clothing Company?

Question 2(a) Design a two-stage probability sampling plan to gather primary data from a random sample of adult clothing shoppers in the market served by Marty's. How efficient is your sampling plan? What can be done to enhance its efficiency?

(b) A pilot study estimated the standard deviation (est. σ) for DV Clothing Spending to be $45. What sample size is required to achieve precision (H) of +/- $4 at 95% confidence. If Tate's research budget can support a sample that is one-third larger, what is the impact on precision? Should she spend the money on the larger sample?

Question 3. Tate commissioned a consultant to conduct focus group and survey research on the local market for retail clothing. A questionnaire developed by the consultant to gather primary data from local clothing shoppers is posted to Moodle (see Marty's Retail Clothing Survey). Create a table to classify the primary data gathered by the questionnaire into State-of-Being, Mind, Behavior and Intention, and Independent and Dependent Variables.

Question 4. After four weeks in the field a total of 445 usable responses were received from a cross-sectional telephone survey of adult clothing consumers. Data from the survey appears in the SPSS data set Martys.DATA.SPSSFormat.Winter2020.sav posted to Moodle.

Respond to the following Research Questions by analyzing the Marty's data set. Refer to the Lecture Notes on ‘Writing the Marketing Research Report' for examples of how to report these research results. With the exception of descriptive charts (e.g., histograms), SPSS statistical output should not be copied directly into your report.

a. What are the key characteristics of retail clothing consumers?

b. What do consumers rate as the most and least important attributes of retail clothing stores?

c. What is the brand image of Marty's Department Store? Naples Clothing Company?

Question 5. Exploratory focus group research prompted the consultant to recommend that Marty's segment the retail clothing market on the basis of two retail store attributes - Merchandise Quality (Importance_2) and Store Atmosphere (Importance_5). The SEGMENT variable in the Marty's data set identifies four market segments defined by median splits (i.e., low/high) for merchandise quality and store atmosphere. Table 1 below summarizes the results of a preliminary descriptive analysis of the four segments. Segment 1, for example, comprises 85 retail clothing shoppers who rate the importance of both merchandise quality and store atmosphere as ‘low', and mean Clothing Shopping and Clothing Spending are 3.29 and 3.50, respectively. Using ANOVA, test for differences in mean Clothing Shopping and Clothing Spending across the four market segments. Does the consultant's approach to segmentation appear to be valid? Explain why or why not.

Table 1: Retail Clothing Market Segments

                                                            Merchandise Quality

	Low	High
High	Segment 3      n=119   Shop   3.03        Spend   3.65	Segment 4           n=167            Shop    3.38        Spend    4.10
Low	Segment 1       n=85           Shop    3.29       Spend    3.50	Segment 2             n=64                      Shop     2.69        Spend     4.01

 

The decision to target a particular market segment can be based on two simple rules of thumb: 1) Strong current sales/profit (i.e., better than the worst segment); or 2) unfulfilled potential (i.e., not as good as the best segment). Test for differences in mean Clothing Shopping and Clothing Spending with independent samples t tests between market segments. Which market segment(s) should Marty's target based on your analysis? Explain why.

6. Using multiple regression, regress Marty's brand image IVs (e.g., Martys1_1 - Martys1_12) and Naples (e.g., Naples1_1 - Naples12_1) on Clothing Shopping and Clothing Spending in the targeted segment(s). Since there are many possible IVs, trim your regression model(s) by selectively adding/removing IVs, while maintaining a significant F statistic and high R2 to with the fewest number of significant IVs.

Each regression analysis must be run for a single targeted market segment, rather than the sample as a whole. When running each regression, define the targeted segments by clicking the SEGMENT variable into the Selection box and entering the number of the Segment (e.g., 1,2,3,4) into the Value box. For example, if Segment 1 is targeted, set Define Selection Rule as equal to and specify Value as 1.

Based on your regression analysis, how should the Marty's brand be positioned and the Naples brand be de-positioned in the targeted market segment(s) to blunt the threat of retail competition from Naples?

Attachment:- Marketing Resarch Report.rar