Course Project

Research Plan

Allyson M. Rush

Rasmussen College

December 3rd, 2017

Research Plan

Research methodology

The research method to be employed is the use of questionnaires or a survey. The use of questionnaires is the best method as it ensures the questions being posed to the respondents are all the same. There will be uniform questions that will help gather the right information and data from the respondents. The survey will involve contacting the coffee customers at Starbucks at the specific time of the survey. I will be giving the questionnaires to only those people who will be willing to take them. Research should be conducted using the people who are ready to answer the available questions but not everyone you meet on the road. There are some researches that can lead to poor results after the respondents fail to return the questionnaires. The research will, therefore, include only the respondents who will be willing to take the questionnaires and return them within the set time. Quantitative methods of research require one to be keen on the kind of respondents one is dealing with. Since the research is on a specific objective of determining the impact price has on the buying habit, the expected answers will almost be the sake. The answer will mostly be a yes or no and a rationale for the same. There are those respondents that will not answer all the questions, and that may result in inaccurate results. The best option is to disregard those questionnaires and go with the ones that have answered all the questions. The comparison will, therefore, be best since there will be data to be compared (Ghose, 2014). Conducting the research on a specific company or product requires permission from the specific authorities, and that has been some through contacting the management. The research will, therefore, be legit and will help figure out the puzzle of price and customer habit on the coffee product.

Investigative questions

The question to be used in the research will be the ones to determine the customer buying habits with regards to the coffee price. The first question will be to ask the respondents on the impact that the price of coffee has on their buying habits. What comes to your mind when you see the price of the coffee? Are you attracted to buying it or not? Does the price matter when making the purchase or the want is what one strives to satisfy? Can one opt to buy another type of coffee if the price is high or are they loyal to the product? The kind of questions will help determine the different behavior by customers on the price. There are those who may be loyal to a certain product, and maybe the price will have no impact on their buying habits (Armstrong, 2015). However, there are those that may prefer to buy cheaper coffee since their need is the coffee product and not the company.

Measurement questions

· To what extent does coffee price affect your buying habits?

· Would you buy an expensive coffee whereas there is a cheaper one?

· What would make you buy the expensive type?

· Price is the sole determinant of the customer buying habit.

Strongly agree Agree disagree strongly disagree not sure

· I would buy an expensive coffee out of customer loyalty.

YES NO

· How many times do you look at price before buying the coffee?

1 2 3 4

Measurement scales

The measurement scales will be determining the number of similar answers in a question and comparing it with others. Some participants will give ambiguous answers, and those will be termed as spoilt responses. This research is aimed at giving very accurate answers, and therefore ambiguous answers will not be accepted. The results will then e compared on the basis of similarity. The scale will then measure the difference between the results and the range. For example, on a scale of 1 to 10, if most of the respondents fall at 4, the final result will be termed as four. If there is a tie that will be the final result and will be termed as correct.

Likely participants

The research will be done around Starbucks. Those likely to participate are the customers from the shops and mostly are the students and the working class around those regions. The students are the best target however since they are willing to respond to the questionnaires in most cases and give the best results (Anees-ur-Rehman, 2016). However, the research will give anyone wanting to participate a chance. They will be contacted prior to being given the questionnaire for them to accept first compared to being forced.

Potential for errors

There is the likelihood that the results which the respondents will give may have some errors. The errors are likely to occur if the answers given are ambiguous and if the client gives inappropriate responses to a certain question.

Compensating for errors

The errors if is the case of ambiguous answers they will be disregarded. That will mean the only data being compared is the accurate and correct data. Inappropriate answers will also not be termed as data for comparison. This will ensure the only results being compared are accurate.

References

Anees-ur-Rehman, M., Wong, H. Y., & Hossain, M. (2016). The progression of brand orientation literature in twenty years: A systematic literature review. Journal of Brand Management, 23(6), 612-630.

Armstrong, G., Kotler, P., Harker, M., & Brennan, R. (2015). Marketing: an introduction. Pearson Education.

Ghose, A., Ipeirotis, P. G., & Li, B. (2014). Examining the impact of ranking on consumer behavior and search engine revenue. Management Science, 60(7), 1632-1654.