Marketing Research

Spring 2015
Please Start Working on your final project (2015/4/20) ; Final Project Proposal
Hard Copy Due 2015/4/29 in class; Presentation due 2015/6/03 or 2015/6/08;
Final Project Write-up due 2015/6/15

About the Final Project The objective of final project is to provide you with
hands-on experience in applying what you learn in the marketing research
course to a real-world marketing related research questions. The project will
account for 40% of your final grade (25% final presentation and 15% write-up).
Each student/group will be required to choose a marketing research question of
your interest. Choose a problem that the company or institution faced or is
currently facing. You can collect information from secondary sources such as
Internet, magazines, newspapers, and databases. You are encouraged to get
additional and more accurate information by conducting interviews with your
friends, classmates, customers, partners, and/or competitors. Develop the story
and problem into a marketing case. At the end of the case, you are required to
perform your analysis and present your conclusions and recommendations. The
writeup should be a minimum of 5-page (in Times New Roman 12 point or Arial
11 point, double spaced, 1 margin on all sides), excluding appendices and
references. Note that strong papers will use the ideas, theories, and research
discussed in class to frame the analysis and provide suggestions for
improvement. The write up is due on 2015/6/15 in both electronic and paper
formats. The final project presentation will take place in class during the last two
sessions; each student/group should limit his/her presentation to 12 minutes
(depending on the number of students enrolled). Group 1-5 will present on
2015/06/03; Group 6-10 will present on 2015/06/08.

Specific Guideline:

Overview:
to develop a problem statement for the proposed research study
to create research objectives and hypotheses for the proposed research
study
Important Concepts:
exploratory research
descriptive research
causal research
defined target population
decision problem
hypothesis

 research objective
Research Procedures
Step 1: Review lecture notes and select a revised or different topic area for
which a marketing research study would be appropriate.
Step 2: Create a problem statement to communicate the main focus of the
proposed research study. Examples may include:

The problem of this study is to determine promotional activities

to increase awareness of volunteer opportunities.

The problem of this study is to determine the attitudes and

behaviors of college students regarding online buying of
clothing.

The problem of this study is to compare the influence of different

advertising messages on consumer perceptions of customer
service.
Step 3: Develop research objectives (also called research questions)
related to the specific topic area you will investigate. These
objectives should prescribe the specific information needs of the
study. Research objectives may be in one of two forms.
1) as a statement, such as:
To compare the attitudes of females and males regarding
online financial services.
To compare volunteer participation among freshman and
seniors.
To determine promotional messages for increasing
nutritional awareness among young consumers (ages 710).
2) or, in a question format:
What are the promotional messages that could increase
volunteer participation among college students?
How do college students most frequently obtain information
about the wise use of credit?
Do females eat breakfast more often than males?
Step 4: List hypotheses that could be tested statistically, such as:
No significant difference exists between females and males
regarding attitudes toward biologically modified food
products.
No significant difference exists between those majoring in
business and those with other majors with regard to buying
online.
Other format variations for hypotheses include:
Significant cultural differences will exist in the dollar amount

participants would expect to pay for each product.

Female consumers have a stronger brand preference than
male consumers.
Cultural differences will exist in the level of importance
attached to individual product attributes.
Children exposed to more children's television programming
will respond more positively to products advertised on those
programs than do children exposed to less children's
television programming.
Step 5: Additional suggested research might include:

a library or web search for information related to the organization's

situation and related topics.

interviews with organizational personnel or others familiar with the
organization, industry, or topic area. (Note: a "client" meeting may
be appropriate to help you focus the direction and information
needs of the study.)
observations of consumer behavior, promotional activities, in-store
displays, package design, competitor actions.

Research output/report
Prepare your final report consisting of the following components:
1.
An overview of the background of the proposed study.
2.
A specific problem statement for the planned investigation.
3.
A list of research objectives for the proposed research study.
4.
A list of hypotheses for the proposed research study.
5.
Perform your analysis and present your conclusions and
recommendations.