mkt project

MKT 305 - Hoyle

Spring 2020

(Revised 4/7/2019)

GUIDELINES FOR THE CUSTOMER RESEARCH PROJECT SUBMISSION 2:

Qualitative and Quantitative research

One of the requirements for MKT 305 is the completion of a customer research project that will account for 25% of a student's final grade (Submission 1 accounted for 7.5% and Submission 2 counts for 17.5%). Submission 2 will require student groups to analyze customer behavior within their selected category. The primary objective of this project is for groups to evaluate how well the selected category is doing with customers (CMU students), determine the underlying causes of their successes and failures, and based upon the findings, recommend a strategy to help them become more successful with CMU student customers. This submission is due by 11:59pm April 28th

1. Qualitative research analysis

Use qualitative research techniques in order to gain an in-depth understanding of the issues driving choice. You will create questions to be asked in a focus group, a series of one-on- one depth interviews or a combination of the two. The purpose of qualitative research is to improve your understanding of the issues most relevant to CMU students. The qualitative research should consist of series of open-ended questions that ask subjects such things as: in what ways has the COVID-19 pandemic changed their behavior; what attributes or evaluative criteria are most important to them and why and how they consider to respond to information about COVID-19. Be sure and have follow-up responses (e.g. “what is it about some information on COVID-19 that you find objectionable? “why is information from the CDC considered more reliable?”). In an actual research setting you would need to make transcripts of these interviews and a detailed summary of the key findings should be written up in the final report. See Exhibit 1 for an example of qualitative research template that you can adapt to your own service category.

2. Quantitative survey analysis

This part of the research project will entail the development, administration and tabulation of a survey of an identified population. The purpose of this survey is for groups to identify and assess those factors affecting decisions with regard to the service and to test some new concepts that might improve customer satisfaction.

Survey Development:

In terms of the specific types of information that should be collected and analyzed, surveys would include questions that measure each stage in the “buying” process as specified in the hierarchy of effects model (see pp. 14-15 Course Packet I & p. 40 of text). See Exhibit 2 for an example/model of an appropriate survey. Groups will identify perceptions of COVID -19 and the relevant attributes (about 5 -7) on which consumers evaluate information about COVID-19. Groups should address the following areas:

a. Awareness: For topics related to COVID-19 included in your research, provide a place for respondents to indicate their degree of familiarity.

b. Needs: For each relevant attribute included in your research, have respondents indicate their evaluation of its importance.

c. Perceptions: Measure beliefs regarding how well each of the sources of information on Covid-19 in the category performs on associated relevant attributes.

d. Preferences: Measure consumer preferences with regards to which sources of information on Covid-19 are preferred most.

e. Intentions: Measure intentions to support information regarding COVID-19 and how likely to support information from sources in the future.

Survey Administration:

In teams come up with questions for the situation outlined above.

Data Analysis

Since no data will be able to be gathered this portion of the project will be omitted. I refer you to the following URL for the data analysis process

Write-up

The write-up in this section should describe how you arrived at the survey data to be gathered and discuss how you would evaluate your findings, present the group's final conclusions about what factors are influencing consumer choice behavior of COVID-19 information sources and which new concepts are most promising. In addition, identify the key strengths and weakness of each of the sources of COVID-19 information you included in your study and rationale for these choices.

3. Recommendations

In this final section, groups should apply the decision-making model of Utilitarian, Social, Emotional, and Epistemic (U.S.E.E., Course Packet 1, p.9) or Utility, Social, Ego, Recreation (U.S.E.R., p. 12 of text.).

DELIVERABLE

A hard copy of your write up of Submission 2 will be due by 11:59pm Tuesday April 28th via blackboard. The qualitative research portion will require groups to provide a discussion of how and why their focus group and/or interviews were prepared. The quantitative survey analysis will require groups to present how and why the class survey was prepared. The written body of this section should report how to interpret results of the survey and give the what conclusions could indicate. Concept testing should be discussed in relation to the strengths and weaknesses of each COVID-19 source.

GRADING

No group member will receive a grade for the written report higher than that given to the group. Written projects will be graded based on the depth and breadth of their analysis, the quality of the report, findings, and the appropriateness of recommendations. A copy of the grading rubric is provided in Exhibit 5.

Exhibit 1

QUALITATIVE RESEARCH WORKSHEET

1. What attributes to you consider when evaluating ________________?

Why are these important to you?

2. Use the worksheet on the below to discuss/write-up your likes and dislikes regarding the main sources of COVID-19 information:

3. Discuss what problems are you are having as a consumer in the ___________ category, and what suggestions for new ideas you might have that would increase your satisfaction with COVID-19 information dissemination.

PROBLEMS:

NEW IDEAS:

Sources of COVID-19 Information	Things I like about… (be specific as possible)	Things I dislike about … (be specific as possible)

Exhibit 2: Sample COVID-19 Survey

1. Awareness: Please indicate your degree of familiarity with each of the following COVID-19 resources:

very unfamiliar very familiar

CDC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

WHO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

CPSC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

FEMA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

*CDC=Centers for Disease Control

WHO=World Health Organization

CPSC-Consumer Product Safety Commision

FEMA=Federal Emergency Management Agency

2. Needs Assessment: Please indicate how important each of the following attributes are to you when evaluating COVID-19 resources:

very unimportant very important

Reputation of Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Knowledge of Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Accuracy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

3. Perceptions of Performance: Please indicate how well you believe each source of COVID -19 information performs on the attribute listed below:

very good very poor

Reputation of Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Knowledge of Source 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Accuracy 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

4. Preferences: Rank order the four sources of COVID-19 information below by writing a "1" next to your most reliable, “2" next to your second most preferred, and continue for all four options. “4” would go next to your least reliable.

CDC ______

WHO ______

CPSC ______

FEMA ______

5. Intentions: Please indicate how likely you are to go to each of the following COVID-19 resources the next time you are in need of information about COVID-19.

very unlikely very likely

CDC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

WHO 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

CPSC 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

FEMA 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

6. Concept testing: Listed below are 3 new concepts of disseminating information about COVID-19 that Federal, State, and local authorities might consider implementing. Please indicate your personal evaluation of these proposals.

Very Negative: Very Positive:

would not like Would like

to see implemented to see implemented

Visit your regular physician 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Real-time access via 24/7 live websites 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Home visits by approved providers 1 2 3 4 5 6 7

Please rank order these same three concepts by writing a "1" next to the one you have most interest in, and continue until you place a "3" next to the one you are least interested in.

_______ Visit your regular physician

_______ Real-time access via 24/7 live websites

_______ Home visits by approved providers

EXHIBIT 3:

STEPS IN CREATING A DATA FILE AND TABULATING SURVEY RESULTS IN EXCEL

(For your reference ONLY)

1. DEFINE VARIABLES IN BLANK EXCEL SPREADSHEET

Open EXCEL select the blank workbook option.

Give each question in your survey a unique label (a brief identifier of the question) and enter these labels in the first row of this spreadsheet table (one per column) in the same order they appear in your survey.

As a precaution in case of data entry error, it is recommended that you put the number of the corresponding row in your spreadsheet on the hard copy of the survey whose data is being entered.

You should have one column dedicated to every potential response you are collecting.

.

2. ENTER THE RESPONSES TO YOUR SURVEY

(ROWS = RESPONDANTS; COLUMNS = SURVEY QUESTIONS)

Enter the numerical responses to survey questions in the appropriate

columns in the spreadsheet.

I f there are any missing values (unanswered questions) leave those cells blank. Do not enter 0 for a missing value.

3. TABULATE THE AVERAGE, MIN AND MAX TO ALL YOUR SURVEY QUESTIONS

Click on the first blank cell below the last entry of your first variable/question. It should be highlighted after clicking.

Click on the ƒx button just above the spreadsheet and in the dialog box that pops up select the AVERAGE option and click OK.

In the next dialog box indicate the first and last cell to be included in this calculation. The default selections may be correct. Click OK and the mean should appear in the highlighted cell.

Repeat the process for all survey questions or just grab the dot in the bottom right hand corner of the highlighted cell with your mouse and drag across all of your columns. The means should appear in each column.

To get the maximum values repeat the process in the cells in the row below the mean calculations but this time in step 2 select MAX rather than AVERAGE.

To get the minimum value repeat the process in the cells in the row below the maximum calculations but this time in step 2 select MIN rather than AVERAGE

Check the minimum and maximum values for out of range responses and if you find any

correct your data entry errors.

For an online video tutorial go to https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=2rEhWFhSqnI

Exhibit 4

MKT 305 GROUP MEMBER EVALUATION FORM

Group member 1 (name)__________________________________

Responsibilities ________________________________________________________________

Low quality work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 High quality work

Very uncooperative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very cooperative

Poor overall contribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent overall contribution

Group member 2 (name)__________________________________

Responsibilities ________________________________________________________________

Low quality work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 High quality work

Very uncooperative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very cooperative

Poor overall contribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent overall contribution

Group member 3 (name)__________________________________

Responsibilities ________________________________________________________________

Low quality work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 High quality work

Very uncooperative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very cooperative

Poor overall contribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent overall contribution

Group member 4 (name)__________________________________

Responsibilities ________________________________________________________________

Low quality work 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 High quality work

Very uncooperative 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Very cooperative

Poor overall contribution 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Excellent overall contribution

Comments:_______________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

Exhibit 5: MKT 305 Submission 2 Rubric

Grading criteria	Does Not Meet Expectations	Meets Expectations	Exceeds Expectations
1. Qualitative Analysis
●Depth (level of description and specificity of detail: quality of analysis: insightful not vague or ambiguous).
●Breadth (number of relevant issues uncovered; went beyond the obvious; presented likes and dislikes of competitors and new ideas)
●Presentation (writing, organization, GSP, aesthetics)
Comments:
Letter Grade for this analysis:
2. Quantitative Analysis
●Depth of reporting (level of description and detail: went beyond merely reporting results but provided quality analysis as well, interpreted results of Multi-attribute model analysis).
●Breadth of reporting (thoroughness of reporting. Included a Multi-attribute Model, reported all of the survey results -needs, awareness, perceptions, preference intentions, and concept testing- and identified the strengths and weaknesses of each competitor in the survey).
●Presentation (writing, organization, GSP, aesthetics)
●Quality of your survey (did it include all the relevant competitors? did it include all of the relevant attributes, how creative were your concept tests? Was it formatted correctly?)
●Correct interpretation of quantitative results. No mathematical errors no misinterpretation of results. The strength and weakness determinations were made based on how well the performance benchmarked against those of the other competitors included in the survey.
Comments:
Letter Grade for this analysis:

Grading criteria	Does Not Meet Expectations	Meets Expectations	Exceeds Expectations
3. Recommendations
●Depth (level of description and detail: quality of rationale)
●Breadth (made recommendations for at least 3 competitors, number of alternative solutions considered, number of pros and cons elicited for each potential solution)
●Presentation (writing, organization, GSP, aesthetics)
●Appropriateness of analysis (were your problem statements supported by your data? Were your recommendations feasible and supported by reason?)
Comments:
Letter Grade for this analysis:
Overall Grade for Submission 2: