Reference no: EM131966371

Marketing Research Assignment -

Group Assignments: In total, there are four assignments and all are group work. The assignments are designed as part of the Term Project. Please review the description of each assignment.

Project: The term project is conducted in groups and consists of a final presentation. The purpose of the project is for you to apply the marketing research concepts learned during the semester to a real-world marketing problem.

Data analysis software: We will be analyzing data using Microsoft Excel. We will use the Excel add-in called "Data Analysis Toolpak".

Group Assignments -

Assignment 1: Identifying the Marketing Problem

a. Pick a firm that you are interested in solving a marketing research problem for (e.g., the company you work for or a company that you are interested in).

b. Perform a SWOT analysis of the firm. Think critically about all the possibilities. Come up with 3 bullet-points for each component of the SWOT. Present your analysis in a 2x2 table with 3 bullet-points in each cell.

c. Based on this information, identify a marketing problem for the firm selected and state that problem in couple of sentences.

Assignment 2: Data Collection

a. Based on the problem identified in Assignment 1, clearly state 4 research questions that you plan to answer with research.

b. Think very critically about what variables/information need to be measured/collected in order to answer your research questions. After deciding on the variables/information that need to be measured/collected, design your survey that you will use to collect your primary data. Make sure your survey is well thought and developed. Attach your survey questions.

Hint: Make sure that you have 1 to 1 link between your research questions and survey questions. Measure/ask only what need to know to answer your research questions, i.e., do no not collect more (or less) information than you need. Keep your survey short and direct to the point. For example, for each research question, you should have 1-4 survey questions in your questionnaire.

Example Research Question: For IPhone 7 owners, how do their demographic characteristics affect their satisfaction with their IPhone 7?

To answer this research question, you need to collect two sets of information (from IPhone 7 owners): customer demographics and customer satisfaction. First, measure customer demographics, let's say age, gender, income, i.e., you need to ask about each demographic characteristic in your questionnaire. One survey question for age, one for gender and third one for income. Second, measure customer satisfaction. For example, ask the following question: On a scale of 1-11 how satisfied you are with your IPhone 7 (1 very unsatisfied, 11 very satisfied)?

Assignment 3: Data Analysis Plan

a. Based on the primary data you collected (or plan to collect) using your survey (in Assignment 2), create a table of variables that you will use in your data analysis. Remember, these variables are measured/collected to answer each of your research questions (stated in Assignment 2). Therefore, for each research question, create a table of variables, i.e., 4 set of variables since you have 4 research questions.

b. For each research question, decide on the data analysis tools to use. Remember, the choice of the tool depends on the variables measured for the corresponding research question (one versus 6 more variables are measured, whether they are categorical and/or continuous, whether DV, IV relationship among variables exist or not). For the use of hypothesis testing, do not forget to specify the null versus alternative hypotheses for the corresponding research question studied. For regression analysis, note that, you don't need to specify the null versus alternative hypothesis.

Hint: Make sure you use the tool selection table from the lectures correctly.

Example Research Question: For IPhone 7 owners, how do their demographic characteristics affect their satisfaction with their IPhone 7?

DV: Customer Satisfaction (continuous)

IV: Age (continuous), Gender (categorical), Income (continuous)

Tool to Use: Multiple Regression Analysis since you have a continuous DV and multiple IVs.

Assignment 4: Data Analysis

Based on the primary data you collected (using your survey in Assignment 2), conduct the relevant data analysis (that you decided in Assignment 3) for your 4 research questions (you came up with in Assignment 2).

For hypothesis testing applications, provide your null and alternative hypotheses, whether the test is one- or two-sided, corresponding Excel output, and your decision based on the provided Excel output.

For regression analysis, do not forget to dummy code your categorical IVs first. Discuss the corresponding regression output: R2, overall significance of the regression model, significance of the estimates, interpretation of regression parameters.

Based on the findings from your analysis, do not forget to answer each of your research questions (from Assignment 2).

Term Project -

Project Purpose: The purpose of this project is for you to develop a marketing research skill-set and apply these skills to a real-world marketing problem. By the end of the project, you should be familiar with:

1. Identifying and defining a marketing problem

2. Developing research questions to solve the marketing problem

3. Collecting primary data by designing your survey

4. Coding and preparing your data for analysis

5. Conducting data analysis (by choosing the right tool)

6. Acquiring and interpreting results from data analysis

7. Deriving managerial recommendations from your results

Project Summary: You will choose a firm that you are interested in solving a marketing research problem for (e.g., the company you work for or a company that you are interested in). Assume that the firm has hired you to conduct marketing research on its behalf. Based on the firm and the marketing problem that you like to analyze, you will need to design a comprehensive marketing research project and execute it. You will present your results in a final presentation.

Components: Your presentation should cover the following components.

1. SWOT Analysis - This should help you set up your marketing problem.

a. Marketing Problem and Research Questions - Clearly state the identified marketing problem (see Assignment 1) and the specific research questions you have (see Assignment 2). I expect you to answer 4 major research questions regarding the marketing problem studied. Here are some research question examples:

(1) What customer characteristics influence sales?

(2) How does ambiance influence customers' preferences?

(3) Do promotions positively influence repeat purchase?

2. Data Collection - I would like you to collect primary data based on your survey (see Assignment 2). Remember that your survey will help answer your research questions. During the presentation, I would like you to briefly discuss the following:

a. Describe the respondent profile used including sample size, response rate, characteristics of respondents, etc.

b. Secondary research, and other primary data collection tools (such as focus groups, individual interviews etc.) are encouraged to be used to motivate the firm's marketing problem, but not required as a method of data collection.

3. Data Analysis

a. Using the primary data you collected, create summary stats, plots, simple and/or crosstabs, and calculate correlations to understand the patterns in the data. Next, perform one of the following data analysis techniques to answer each of your four research questions:

• Hypothesis testing: During your presentation, do not forget to state the corresponding null (Ho) and alternative (H1) hypotheses.
• Regression analysis

b. Describe why you perform those analyses.

4. Results - describe your results. For example, you can describe hypotheses results (e.g., income level of customers has no impact on sales), and results from regression (e.g., on average, an increase in the cut level of a diamond from "Very Good" to "Ideal" level increases it price by $600), etc.

a. Remember: these firms have hired you to uncover novel and counter-intuitive findings (For example, do not tell me that if the firm increases the price, its demand will decrease). Make sure that some of your results push managerial thinking.

5. Recommendations - Make recommendations to the studied firm based on your results. Ideally, for each research question you study, you should make a recommendation based on your findings.

6. Work Cited - Cite all of your work. Make sure to include only facts acquired from your analysis instead of opinions.

Attachment:- Assignment Files.rar