MKT-IB Department | Frank G. Zarb School of Business | Hofstra University

MKT 245

Research for Marketing Decisions

Dr. Boonghee Yoo, Associate Professor of Marketing

DESCRIPTION

Principles, procedures and techniques of defining and solving marketing problems; research designs and analytical methods; statistical techniques in market research. Prerequisites: MKT 203 and QM 210.

REQUIRED TEXT

David A. Aaker (U. of California Berkeley), V. Kumar (U. of Connecticut) and George S. Day (U. of Pennsylvania), Marketing Research, Published by Wiley. The book’s web site is http://www.wiley.com/college/aaker.

OBJECTIVES AND METHODS OF ACHIEVING THE OBJECTIVES

The primary objective of this course is to help you be a wise buyer and user of marketing research and the secondary objective is to help you be a capable marketing researcher. The course is designed to provide an introductory conceptual framework for understanding theories and practices of marketing research process. In particular, at the end of the semester,

· You should be able to design, conduct, analyze, interpret, and present marketing research to provide valuable information for a particular marketing decision problem. Various projects from the real world marketing problems are designed to help you build these capabilities.

· You should be able to apply statistics and statistical software to analyze marketing data. Through the course, SPSS will be run for various analytical tasks. SPSS is available in the College of Business Computer Lab and other university labs. But you are free to use other software such as Mini Tab and SAS for your convenience. The statistical techniques you will learn and apply in this course include Chi-square tests, t-tests, ANOVA, Correlations, Multiple regression analysis, Factor Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Multidimensional Scaling.

· You should be able to understand the role and importance of marketing research in decision making in marketing.

TOPICS

Marketing Research: A Pervasive Activity

Alternative Approaches to Marketing Intelligence

The Research Process and Problem Formulation

Research Design

Causal Designs

Data Collection: Secondary Data

Data Collection: Primary Data

Data Collection Forms

Attitude Measurement

Sampling Procedures

Sample Size

Collecting the Date: Field Procedures

Data Analysis: Preliminary Steps

Data Analysis: Basic Questions

Data Analysis: Examination of Differences

Data Analysis: Investigation of Association

Multivariate Data Analysis: Factor Analysis, Cluster Analysis, and Multidimensional Scaling

COMPETITIVE TEAM PROJECTS (Example):

Activity 1 (10%): Marketing Problem and Research Purpose

A single-space typed report and a 7 minute PowerPoint presentation required

· Cover Page: Title of your project (if possible, have a question format), name of the team, team members, the product or service name, semester and year, course, section number, instructor, report submission date, and the school affiliation.

· Marketing problem: “Define” the marketing problem clearly that your team wants to research, provide details of the problem, and discuss why the marketing problem is important.

· Background Facts: Draw a timeline chart showing the historic events related to the problem. And summarize important facts related to the problem based on secondary data such as newspaper and magazine articles, Internet sites, and books. Visit the Hofstra library and its online databases. Don’t forget to report the source for each citation.

· Purpose of the research: Discuss the purpose of your research, and list important research objectives and critical information items you plan to collect.

· Research design: Decide a research design that fits the research objectives the best and discuss specific methods and a plan of research.

Activity 2 (15%): Hypotheses, Measures, Questionnaire, and Sample

A single-space typed report and a 10 minute PowerPoint presentation required

· Research Hypotheses: Develop research hypotheses that would produce critical information for the marketing problem, and provide reasons explaining why each hypothesis would be true, which may come from applications of related theories and case analysis of similar situations. Write one hypothesis and provide the reasons for it, then write the next hypothesis and reasons, and so on. All hypotheses must serve the purpose of the research firmly.

· Variables: Note that each hypothesis consists of variables as it is a relational statement of variables. Identify and define variables for your study. They can be consumption-related (e.g., brand loyalty, purchase amount, money spent, where to buy), needs-oriented (e.g., why and when to buy, aspects of product, purchase reasons, benefits sought such as product quality, values, and social status), lifestyle-related (e.g., social class, hobbies, sports, ongoing interests), and socio-demographic (e.g., age, gender, income, education level, occupation, race, ethnic origin, family size, distance to home).

· Measures: List measures that measure the variables, and defend yourself on the reliability and validity of each measure. You can select existing measures or develop your own. Whenever possible,

a. Use interval or ratio scales rather than nominal or ordinal scales.

b. Use 7-point scales.

c. Use multi-item scales.

· Questionnaire: Write a questionnaire of a good format that contains all measures you listed above. Limit the number of questions to 40 or so (not more than 50).

· Procedure and sample: Discuss what type of sample will be surveyed, why they are appropriate for the study, how they are approached, and major characteristics of the sample. Survey over 50 people.

Activity 3 (25%): Data Analysis and Action Suggestions

A single-space typed report and a 15 minute PowerPoint presentation required (The report should also include Activity 1 and 2 sections although you present only Data Analysis and Action Suggestions.)

Note that data should be collected before starting this activity.

· Data Analysis and Results: Analyze data, using SPSS, and as a result of data analysis, report whether or not each hypothesis is supported.

a. Do not copy or attach any raw SPSS output as it is, but extract the information to report from it.

b. To report the results of statistical analysis efficiently, use both summary tables and graphs. In case that a graph is not appropriate or inefficient, you may have the tables only. See the examples of summary tables and graphs from journal and newspaper articles.

c. Charts, graphs, summary tables should be put inside the text on the pages corresponding to their written report.

d. Use most appropriate statistical methods that match the hypotheses and the types of scales used.

e. Interpret the statistical results correctly. Be careful with test statistics and p-values.

f. Discuss the meanings and implications of results in plain English. Discuss if each hypothesis is supported or not by the data.

g. In case that a hypothesis is not supported, defend yourself on why it could have occurred.

h. Go beyond the direct hypothesis testing. Report any interesting and relevant findings by running advanced analytical methods for the data.

· Strategic Action Suggestions: Based on the findings, suggest marketing actions that management should take. Under each action, discuss which particular findings have led you to suggest each action, elaborate exactly how each action can be implemented, and predict what consequences may occur. Maximally utilize your knowledge of marketing and any other related discipline to link the research findings to the actions.

· Conclusion (100 – 200 words): Wrap up your study.

· APPENDIX:

a. Questionnaire (Inside the questionnaire, report the percent frequencies right on each choice category of each nominal- or ordinal-scaled question, and the mean score next to each interval- or ratio-scaled question.)

b. References