Research Request Agreement Report - Marketing Research

Research Request Agreement Marketing 415

Jennifer Alvarado - Genesis Hernandez

Mike Hess - Trevor Parsons - Jake Nimmo

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A. Background The Division of Student Affairs is dedicated to assisting in the success of all student endeavors. Student Affairs seeks to prepare students for the global community, making them ethical and responsible leaders. The Division of Student Affairs is made up of several departments that serve to build personal development by guiding and positively interacting with students throughout their time at WCSU and onward. Key departments within Student Affairs have been recruited to create the Student Life Area Committee: Office of InterCultural Student Affairs, The Center for Student Involvement, Housing and Residence Life, Career Success Center, Department of Athletics and Campus and Student Centers and Auxiliary Services and at least one SGA Senator. The purpose of the Student Life Area Committee is to identify the underlying issues of low student involvement on campus during weekdays and weekends. The committee is open to the public and welcomes students to sit in during the meeting. The goal of this committee is to improve the attendance on overall programming at Western Connecticut State University. Problem: The Division of Student Affairs has struggled with producing weekend and weekday programming that is well attended by the student body. They aren’t sure if it’s because of a lack of awareness, disinterest, commute time, work commitments etc. Student Affairs is also unable to identify if they are using social media effectively to promote activities, and to communicate and engage with students. Student Affairs has increased the amount of weekend events on-campus and have not seen satisfying results in student attendance. On average they will have less than 50 students attend each weekend event. The committee has also determined they lack funding and resources necessary to produce high-quality programming. In order to be a “Full Service Weekend Campus” they must provide funding for faculty and staff that run the programs, services, and departments on weekends in addition to actual expense of the events/services taking place. Marketing Mix: Price: Most of the programming and services provided to current WCSU students are free. Most programming has also been open to alumni free of charge however the public tends to pay for admittance. Events that aren’t free to current WCSU Students are usually offered at a low and affordable price. Product:

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The products offered are the events produced by Departments, Clubs and Organizations such as Division of Student Affairs, Intercultural Affairs, Center of Student Involvement, Housing and Residence Life, Career Success Center, Department of Athletics, PAC, SGA, Greek Council, IRHA, REC, ACSA, BSU, WMA etc. Additional resources that incentivize students to stay on-campus are provided by the Dining Services, Library, Writing Center, Computer Labs (IT&I) etc. Place: WCSU programing/services take place both on-campus and off-campus. The majority of events are held on-campus however off-campus programming tends to have high participation is usually popular among the current student population.

● Examples of on-campus events include: Bingo, Roller Skating, Career Fair, Clubs Carnival, Stuff-A-Plush, Intercultural events, Run or Dye

● Examples of off-campus events include: Ice Skating, Broadway Shows, Ski Trips, The Big-E, New York Art Trips, Basketball Games

Promotion: Events are promoted through flyers, posters, banners, word-of-mouth, social media, WOW, WOW Weekender, WOW Alumni, (email blasts). Departments, Clubs and Organizations often collaborate with each other by co-hosting events. This serves to divide expenses, increase awareness and bring the community together. Current Efforts to Resolve Issue Currently the division has attempted to raise awareness of their events in order to produce a higher turnout of student. They have also increased the number of events offered during the weekdays and weekends. The committee has attempted to gather information from students to identify issues and address them.

● Created a survey and sent it out to the student body ● There have 3 to 5 programs on weekends on both campuses ● Created special programs such as the InterCultural Festival and cultural celebratory

month, Welcome Week Programming and Homecoming programs ● SGA/PAC/Greek Council are overseen by Student Affairs and are also involved in the

promotion and creation of events ● Expanded Weekend Dining hours and options

○ Example: A chicken and waffles event was popular enough to make it a official menu option

● Full Shuttle service on Weekends ● Increased efforts to promote and advertise events

○ All events placed on WOW, Alumni WOW, and WOW Weekender ○ Used Social Media such as Instagram, Facebook, and Twitter to promote events ○ Create flyers and posters ○ Word of mouth

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● Message board at the bottom of University Blvd has weekly schedule displayed ● Extended their evening office hours and have encouraged all other offices to do so as

well as to provide weekend hours. However some departments are hesitant because despite student requests for extended hours, not many students actually come in.

○ Career Services did extend and open their doors on the weekend. ● Hired a University Assistant to market events

Goals:

● Increase their funding/budget to accomodate for 24/7 services ● Use our Marketing Research class to better understand students attendance to events

on weekends and weekdays ● Improve their publicizing efforts for all events by identifying appropriate, effective and

efficient tools/resources ● Enhance the use of social media ● More advertisement ● Align programs with other departments, clubs and organizations ● Communicate with other departments clubs and organizations to ensure duplicate

programs do not occur ineffectively. ● Extend hours of weekend services from all departments

○ Departments that might participate are ■ Health Services ■ Counseling Center ■ Academic Affairs ■ Library ■ Computer Labs ■ Writing Center

● Increase attendance and involvement of New York and New Jersey students and all other out-of-state students

● Increase attendance and involvement of in-state commuters

B. Decision Problems 1. “How do we keep students on campus on weekdays and weekends?” ​The Western Connecticut State University Division of Student Affairs desires to gather information on the lack of student involvement on campus. This is a discovery-oriented decision problem that has arisen from an unplanned change in the marketing environment, an unexpectedly low percentage of student involvement. 2. “What resources do we need to keep students on campus on weekdays and weekends?” ​The Western Connecticut State University Division of Student Affairs desires to gather information on the resources needed to keep students on campus. This is a

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discovery-oriented decision problem that has arisen from an unplanned change in the marketing environment, an unexpectedly low percentage of student involvement.

C. Research Problems

Research Problems for Decision Problem 1. 1. Investigate student awareness of campus programs.

a. The Committee Student Life center has stated that lack of awareness could be one of the variables contributing to low student attendance to campus events. Awareness is something that can be measured through student surveys that are low in cost ($0.00) and can include a significant sample size.

2. Determine student satisfaction of campus programs.

a. Student overall satisfaction with campus programs are the keystone measurement of this research. This information will give the Division of Student Affairs insights as to which programs students are most likely to attend with the variable of awareness held constant. This can be measured through in depth interviews, and surveys.

3. Investigate student perceptions of campus programs. a. By investigating student perceptions of campus programs we can determine if

students are aware of the campus events taking place, or if the events themselves are not of interest to students. This could be measured through surveys, focus groups, and interviews. Surveys offer structure,and are low time intensive, Interviews and focus groups are time intensive but offer greater insight and give room for probing.

4. Determine student attendance rates for campus programs.

a. The Assistant Dean of the Student Life center stated that they have had low attendance for the events currently being held. Researching through internal data would give an accurate number of what the Assistant Dean is considering to be low, and also set objectives for how many students should be attending future events. This information is readily available at the Student Life Affairs.

5. Determine student awareness of WOW and WOW Weekender​.

a. Campus events are shared via WOW and Wow Weekender. By understanding if students are checking Wow and WOW Weekender, it would give the research team insight if students are looking up where events are or are they hearing about events from different channels of communication.This research problem can be combined with Research Problem 1 because it would require the same population, with these research problem cost remain low.

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6. Determine student satisfaction of WOW and WOW Weekender.

a. If students initially use WOW and WOW WeeKender, but find it difficult to use or not beneficial, if may cause them to stop using it. This could cause students to miss campus events due to a lack of awareness. Using surveys to gather this information would give the research team structure and keep costs low.

7. Determine which media channels are used most by students. a. If we can obtain greater insight into what media channels students are using, we

can further understand where there attention is going along with what is keeping them engaged, and how they like to engage. This information can be useful for the Student LIfe Committee in determining what type of events to put on. To measure this we would conduct personal interviews to able to probe subjects, and get insight into what questions should be asked on the survey. The interviews will time intensive, and the surveys will be low time intensive both will be low in cost.

8. Determine which media channels are currently reaching students regarding campus

programs. a. Knowing where students are getting the information from will allow the Student

Life Affairs to know where to put their efforts in terms of advertising and promoting events. This is extremely useful because students may like the events but are not made aware of them in time to attend. This can be examined in conjunction with student awareness. Awareness is a straightforward measurement and low in cost.

9. Investigate student satisfaction of specific clubs/organizations on campus. a. If the Student Life Committee can understand what events are attracting the most

students, it would help with hosting events that involve those particular clubs, and looking at best practice of those clubs that could help other clubs use it as a benchmark. Doing in depth interviews to explore further information that is relevant to this matter helps to gain insight in to the specifics that are causing the degree of satisfaction allows for flexibility. In depth interviews are time consuming however the research team finds that with certain matters the probe is worth the time.

10. Determine the relationship between attendance of campus programs and overall satisfaction of WCSU.

a. Gaining further insight into the level of satisfaction from students could explain part of the reason they may not be attending. It could also lead to next question if satisfaction levels are low, then what would make the events more attractive. Measurements used include interviews for greater insight to not just satisfaction but also to which degree, and what would students like to see more of. Using

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Interval measurement can also give this feedback on bigger scale as we can reach more students with online survey. The interview will require time, and human labor but is worth the trade of getting energy of students satisfaction beyond surveys. Surveys are cost effective, and low time intensive.

11. Compare the attendance of campus programs over the last (five) years. a. Looking back at previous programs will give insight to what students liked and

what was working. Comparing this with current information will get insight to student trends in the last five years and we will be able to understand what events have been consistently popular, this information is useful because Student Affairs can create similar events that have been liked by students. Getting this information would require research into data owned by Student Affairs and could result in time intensive but will be low in cost since they own the data.

12. Investigate student perceptions of campus culture/community. a. Having insight into the perception of university cultural could give further

understanding into what students like/dislike about what they are currently experiencing, and what changes are they looking for. This information can also show if there are strong consistencies across students. To measure this the research team suggests using focus groups, and in depth interviews to dig deeper into the perceptions and start a dialog about what successes there have been, and where the Student Life Affairs can pick up the ball. The research team would like to get the overall campus mood beyond surveys and find that in depth interviews allow the flexibility to capture exactly what is going on. This will require time in finding students to participate, and time spent doing the interviews.

13. Determine the percentage of students who go home on weekends for work. a. If the Student Life Committee has insight into​ ​when students are most available

then they can host events that are convenient for​ ​students to attend. If enough students have work then these are obligations that are non negotiable so it may make sense to focus on different times if the number of students working on the weekend is high. We can conduct exploratory research in the form of surveys and use nominal scaling to see the differences in percentages. This measurement is low cost as it can be done through online surveys.

14. Determine the percentage of students who go home on weekends for social purposes. a. Using nominal scaling we can look at percentages to see if a significant amount

of students are attending other events that tells the research team that the want to engage in social setting is there. Using surveys the information can be gathered in low-time, and is cost effective.

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Research problems for decision problem 2. 1. Determine the current costs of campus programs.

a. The resources provided by WCSU for student programs are a major portion of the school’s budget. By obtaining the costs of each program from the Center for Student Involvement, we will be able to perform cost/benefit analysis more accurately.

2. Evaluate the ratios of cost per student for campus programs.

a. By comparing the cost per program and dividing it by the number of students attending each of those programs, we can better evaluate the success of campus programs.

3. Assess the attitudes of campus staff regarding weekend work hours.

a. The WCSU staff’s attitudes about working weekends will play a major role in the viability of certain programs. By issuing surveys, we can collect this information in an efficient manner.

4. Determine the costs associated with becoming a “full-time” campus.

a. Many of the barriers associated with student involvement on weekends are tied to the costs of operating all departments seven days per week. These costs can be measured by interviewing campus officials and by reviewing past budgets.

5. Determine the student usage rates of academic campus resources on weekends.

a. The volume of students attending academic help resource offices on weekends will allow the Assistant Dean of Students to make better choices regarding investments in additional weekend hours. This information can be gathered from staff and department chairs.

6. Compare the student usage rates of academic campus resources on weekends versus

weekdays. a. The differences in usage rates of academic resources on weekends versus

weekdays will give insights into the effectiveness of weekend programs. This data can be gathered via attendance logs from each office/department.

7. Assess the financial forecasts of WCSU budgets for campus programs.

a. In order to fully understand the scope of WCSU’s budget, forecasts should be analyzed as far ahead as ten years. Although some of this data will be speculative, it will be helpful for the Assistant Dean of Students to have an idea of the increase or decrease in funding that is expected in the future.

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8. Determine the availability of staff for extended and weekend hours. a. Weekend programs and campus resources will depend on staff availability. By

interviewing and collecting survey data, we can further understand the scheduling issues surrounding weekend campus activities.

9. Evaluate the satisfaction of students regarding event planning for clubs.

a. If a club decides to cancel the planning and execution of an event because of the level of difficulty regarding permissions, evaluations can be made about the process of planning. This research would entail interviews and focus groups of club officers, who are the decision makers navigating the school’s red tape. This research will be time and effort intensive, because only club officers deal with these sorts of logistical issues surrounding event planning.

10. Determine the step-by-step process by which campus club officers decide which

programs to plan. a. By determining the steps taken by club officers to plan events, conclusions can

be drawn regarding the internal process of program selection. The steps involved in this process can be gathered from clubs officers through surveys, focus groups, and interview.

11. Evaluate the satisfaction of club officers regarding campus staff support in the program

planning process. a. By determining the satisfaction of club officers, regarding campus staff support,

conclusions can be drawn about possible flaws in the way events are run. A lack of staff support could make events unappealing to WCSU students whcih in return could cause a lack of student involvement.

12. Evaluate the effectiveness of current social media practices conducted by the division of

student affairs. a. By determining the current effectiveness of social media efforts, we can further

understand the assistant deans concerns about the Department of Student Affairs social media in general. We can achieve this by looking at social media analytics.

D. Research Problems Selected After reviewing these research problems (and others), the research team has concluded that research problems 1 - 14 offer the greatest value in terms of providing information that is likely to address decision problem one, and 1 - 8 and 12 for decision problem two. Each involves collecting information from the same population (See F. Targets and Subgroups).

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E. Use The key information we are looking for is (a) what is the level of awareness among students of campus programs and events, and (b) the level of satisfaction with the current campus programs available. In addition to this key information, we can collect data via digital survey regarding perceptions, attitudes, availability of students and staff, as well as budgets/costs of programs.The Western Connecticut State University Division of Student Affairs plans to use this information to determine the degree to which a problem exists in terms of awareness and satisfaction with the current campus programs, and how to help increase the attendance of these events. Supplemental data will support conclusions about the main focus of awareness and satisfaction.

F. Targets and Subgroups Although the population will be formally defined in the research proposal, the researchers intend to collect data from Western Connecticut State University Students. The studnets interviewed will primarily be ones that live on campus, but subgroups will include commuters, transfer students and non traditional students (23 years and older). Student participants will also be divided by graduating class, gender, ethnicity, age, major, occupational status, in-state/out-state, residency and credit hours.

G. Logistics This project should be completed in approximately two months. WCSU will be able to complete this market research at no cost by utilizing the readily available student body.