MARK 4441 Assignments /Term Project

Assignment Summary

All assignments in this course are focused on a single research question (problem) of your choice. Each assignment should concentrate on how the current step can provide insights for the next step of the research process and the research design. Each stage of the study serves as a building block of the next step. You need to apply the methods that you have learned in this project.

Presentation

Writing Guidelines

Remember that you will be judged by the quality of your work, which, in this case, will be your paper. The writing guidelines that follow will assist you with the quality of your written work, including writing style and APA format:

• Paragraphs are unified, developed, and coherent, with transitions between ideas.
• Sentences are grammatically correct; words are chosen for accuracy and impact.
• Writing follows the conventions of spelling and mechanics (punctuation, etc.).
• Documentation follows APA style accurately and consistently.
• Assignments are submitted in double line spacing and use 12-point Times New Roman. Do not use any templates provided by MS Word.

Completion and Submission Guidelines

You must use Turnitin for all graded work (See course outline for class ID and enrollment key). Peer evaluations (see the last page in this document) for each group paper should be submitted via the Blackboard. Be sure to save your assignment as a Word document and name it: MARK4441-section #_Lastname_A# (for non-group work) and MARK4441-section #_Brandname_A# (for teamwork). For example, I am a student of section 003 in Assignment 1. I would use MARK4441-003-Hilde-A1 as my filename. Incorrect filename/format (i.e. not using Word document or wrong filename) will receive a 5% reduction of your mark. It is about paying attention to details and following instructions.

Reminders before submitting your assignment:

• Did you put your name and student number on the cover page of the document?
• Did you complete all the required elements and use the headings properly?
• Did you use the information and terminology learned in this course?
• Did you support your statements with specific examples/facts?
• Did you cite references, using APA referencing format?
• Did you ensure that there are no spelling mistakes? Is your report grammatically correct, clear, and well organized?

Grading Criteria

Grading will be based on:

1. Your understanding of the concepts contained in the course materials.
2. Your ability to connect your own experiences and opinions with the course material and any other outside sources/data.
3. Your use of proper referencing of the course materials and any outside sources.
4. Your ability to clearly express your opinions with good arguments.
5. Your ability to present your work in a professional manner. In particular, grammar and spelling will be taken into consideration when assignments are evaluated.
6. The exceeded word limit will not be read/graded.

Establishing rotational roles for each assignment is required. In other words, to rotate from a leader/editor to a researcher, to a writer and so on. It will be the basis of my (peer) evaluation of your contribution to your team. See the last page of this document for more information on peer evaluation.

Assignment 1: Writing a research proposal in APA style (9 %) – Individual paper or two-people paper (Not a group paper)

Introduction

In completing the assignments for this course, you will have to focus on a marketing research question (not management decision problem) of your product choice. If you are unsure what marketing research question is, you should not proceed but go back to review chapters 1 and 2. Reviewing instructions of assignments 2, 3, 4, and 5 will also help you to make some good preliminary decisions in research design.

You are required to submit a draft for a class activity and later submit via Turnitin for grading. See the course outline for the due dates.

The goal of this assignment is to excel in your searching skills. It also helps you practising APA (American Psychology Association) style of writing, citing, formatting and referencing. It is a style of writing of research papers in social science and shows that you have collected data/facts to support your claims. The grading is based on how well you can master the APA style in writing a research proposal, not on the content of the proposal itself. However, your instructor must approve this proposal before you can submit any future assignments. The proposal approval is based on your understanding of drafting a good marketing research problem statement and practising good research ethics.

Assessment parts	Marks *	Percent of final grade
Using APA style	(1) In-text citations (30 marks) – Min. of 6 (5 marks each) (2) Reference list (40 marks) – Min. of 5 (8 marks each) (3) Page layout (30 marks): Cover page & running head, headers, headings, subheadings, font style, font size, margins, paragraphs alignments, line spacing, punctuations, endnotes, etc. (each error is worth 3%, max of 10 errors)
	100 (If student proposal is not approved in the first submission, s/he will need to resubmit until it is approved. The assigned grade is for the first submission and will not be changed.)	9%
Writing a research proposal	Approve /Re-submit	0%
*In order to obtain full marks in each part, you work needs to satisfy to the grading criteria below.

Instructions

Part A: Research APA style

You are required to search for publications (online or offline) on how to prepare an APA paper. There are APA manual and websites (e.g., apastyle.org) as well as materials available at the Douglas library that provides a summary of the APA style of referencing:  http://library.douglascollege.ca/guides/cite-sources/apa. Your task is to discern what is good versus bad sources of information while learning APA style. That is where to find credible sources. When there are conflicting instructions, which one to believe? Some students find watching a few YouTube videos are helpful. Be cautious when choosing which to watch and believe. That will sharpen your search skills. The grading is based on the apastyle.org and/or the APA Manual (http://0-search.ebscohost.com.orca.douglascollege.ca/login.aspx?direct=true&db=cat02946a&AN=dcl.b2135522&site=eds-live&scope=site).

Learning APA takes time and this assignment is the very first step to begin this process. Other course professors could have required student APA paper style, but this course requires a professional APA style that is specific for writing research papers. Be sure to give full and complete references for all your search while writing your research proposal. APA style is more than a matching exercise between citations and references, it also has specific requirements in formatting a paper and using punctuation. You are required to use the professional style in writing all future assignments.

Part B: Review Assignment Requirements and choose a product

Take a few minutes to review the requirements of the course assignments (2, 3, 4 and 5). As you will see, all the assignments relate to a marketing research question/problem. Think about a product for which all the assignments will make sense and be achievable. You need to demonstrate a clear understanding of management decision problems and marketing research problems. You should choose a consumer branded product that is purchased relatively frequently, to ensure that you have enough users and sellers to conduct the research. Please do not use any fast-food restaurants or convenience goods (e.g. ketchup) that had been written by other students previously.  If you are stuck for an idea, think along the line of your personal hobbies, but not your current or previous employment. Be aware that all research projects must uphold research ethical standards written in the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans (see: http://www.pre.ethics.gc.ca/pdf/eng/tcps2/TCPS_2_FINAL_Web.pdf). This is NOT a good idea to use your employer’s product/service because it can potentially violate the Privacy Act of Canada and involve situations with power dynamics. Remember, most data collected by your employer are for conducting business; not to be used for any research project (unless consent has been obtained from their customers).  Imagine if you are a branch manager of a bank who asks your subordinates to fill out your survey, do they really have the freedom to reject your request? This is the power dynamics that may arise (i.e. violate the tri-council policy).

Consider some practical issues when making your choice:

• Is there substantial secondary research available on this product? Take some time to do an Internet search for resources such as trade magazines, industry associations, Statistics Canada, and competitor websites. Do not use a company that does not have publicly available information, or it is not currently operating.
• Can you reach enough customers of this product to get some good customer information (i.e. to meet the sample size requirements)? Perhaps you or a friend or relative have a network of people that use this product. You may find an expert in the field willing to let you approach their customers, but do not count on this—make arrangements now if this is what you are hoping to do. You may run into a roadblock when your access has closed. Do not consider your current employment resources (internal information or client lists, etc.) without permission from supervisors/owners and/or consents from the company’s clients. It can become junk mail or spam.

Part C: Submit Your Assignment (the FINAL version)

Prepare a 500-word research proposal that is written in APA style (10% exceeded the word limit will not be read). It should include the following seven (7) parts. Make sure you use heading(s) to help the reader navigating your paper.

1. Write a brief paragraph to tell the reader what this paper is about and what you are trying to achieve. (approx. 50 words)
2. Product Overview: This is the name of the product that you will be using for your assignments. This should be an existing brand name, not just a product category. Include a brief description of what the product is and the product website, if available. (approx. 50 words)
3. Problem Definition: This part is about why this product needs research. Think about the major issues the manager is facing. Is it a new product that needs to increase awareness or secure wider distribution? Is it a mature product that is facing fierce price competition or “me-too” products? Write one or two management decision questions that your assignments will address.

• Now use the conceptual map to develop a marketing research problem (in one sentence) that reflects what information is needed for the management decision problem. You must differentiate between a management decision and a research problem
  • A management decision is often a big-picture dilemma—what do they (your client) need to do?
  • A research problem identifies what information needs to be gathered—what do they need to know?

In the rest of your assignments, your goal is to find information (data) about what your client does not know. Therefore, focusing mainly on the marketing research problem/question; not the management decision questions. Since the marketing research problem is data-driven. Is the written question research-able?

If you like, you can also include the specific research components, the sub-questions that this research will address. You must include only one (1) marketing research question. This question will guide the entire project in data collection. (approx. 200 words)

4. Secondary Research Plan (Assignment 2): Think about where you will find good information about your product, consumers, competitors, and industry. Take some time to search the web to see if good information is likely to be available on your product. Write two to three sentences that describe what you expect to be the best sources of information. You’ll need to be confident that you can find fifteen (15) credible sources of secondary information. (approx. 50 words)
5. Focus Group (Assignment 3): Think about whom you want in your focus group—current customers, prospective customers, customers from a certain target market. How will you get a group like this together and willing to volunteer their time to participate in this research? You probably do not want to count on finding strangers to do this with—so consider your friends, colleagues, your family and their friends and colleagues, and your neighbours. Write a couple of sentences about what your plan is. You’ll need a minimum of eight (8) people to participate in a one-hour discussion. It needs to deal with three research components or issues. Plan for extra people in case some are not available at the last minute. (approx. 50 words)
6. Descriptive Research (Assignment 4): Think about what kinds of questions you might ask on your questionnaire. These will relate closely to the marketing research problem and the associated sub-questions that you have defined in this proposal. Also, think about where and how you will conduct the research. Who do you want to participate in the research—current customers, prospective customers, or a certain target market of your product? Write a couple of sentences that summarize your thoughts. You’ll need to have a min. of 150 participants or more (different from your focus group participants) completing a ten-question survey in person or online, which should take them about five minutes. (approx. 50 words)
7. Report (Assignment 5): Think about what topics (or research components) you will want to cover in your report. Make sure that these topics are closely related to the management decision problem and the marketing decision problem that you outlined in this plan. Write a few sentences to explain how the data can be analyzed and interpreted, and what kind of recommendations and conclusion you would expect. Does the analytical tools appropriate to your marketing research problem? (approx. 50 words)

Your instructor will provide you with some guidance or advice to keep in mind as you work through the assignments. The more thoughtful and complete this assignment is, the more useful the feedback you receive will be. However, do not write more than the word limit. They will not be read.

In short, this assignment is a clear and precise explanation of what you are setting out to study and why and how the study is being undertaken. Make sure you argue and justify your decisions. This is an essential skill in writing a research paper/proposal.

Hints:

For a better understanding of (1) the management-decision problem, (2) the marketing research question and (3) the differences between the two concepts, read pages 47–50 of the textbook and try the self-test (available in Blackboard: Activity 1-MRP vs MDP Self test).

Be specific with your marketing research question or you will make your assignments very difficult to complete. You cannot solve all problems in a one-semester course, so only choose one element of the marketing mix and/or a specific target market to address. Then, write your marketing research problem statement based on what information you will need. Make sure that you have a clear and precise focus on what is under investigation.

Your research proposal may not be approved because of these 2 reasons:
1. without a research-able marketing research question that is data-driven; or
2. Cannot meet the Tri-Council Policy Statement: Ethical Conduct for Research Involving Humans.

Assignment 2: Secondary Research (10%) – Group Paper

Your group (no more than 5 people) will carry out secondary research.

Assessment parts	Marks*	Percent of final course grade
Introduction	10
Method(s)	10
Findings (min. of 15 references)	10
Analysis	25
Implications and conclusion	45
Total	100	10%
*In order to obtain full marks in each part, your work needs to satisfy the grading criteria below. Note: All group work is subject to peer evaluation. See the peer evaluation form at the end of this document. You must complete your personal peer evaluation and submit it via Blackboard for every group paper.

 

Introduction

This assignment is your opportunity to begin understanding your research problem. You will start with secondary research because it is typically the cheapest and easiest way to learn about your product and the marketing research question. This will also help you to refine your research problem and gain insights into choosing elements in the research process.

Instructions

In a report of no more than 1,500 words (10% exceeded the word limit will not be read), describe what you have done in finding secondary research data in solving your research problem.  You should try to layout your information logically. Often, you must include the following. Use headings to divide your work:

 

1. Your opening paragraph should connect the why, what and how of the study that you have written from your assignment 1. In addition, you should state the purpose(s) / goal(s) of this paper including how the data will be used.
2. You will need to show the reader(s) how and where your data is obtained (i.e. your methods of data collection). What are your evaluation criteria for choosing those data? This section heading should be called method.
3. After clearly stating how the data is obtained, you can then present your data (also known as Findings). Focus on the information that is relevant to your research problem. On a bad day, you might only find one or two relevant and credible sources after a search of over 10 documents. Do not be discouraged. Even then, do not attempt to include the irrelevant data (i.e. “stuffing up” the “fluffs”). This won’t help to improve your paper. Every source that you chose to include has a purpose and/or you are trying to make a point across or to develop an argument. You should be able to find at least 15 different good sources of information that you would reference in your assignment. You may choose to include information about the following

• Customers
• Competitors
• Supply chain (suppliers, distributors, wholesalers, etc.)
• General industry information
• Relevant economic information
• Other (that will support your arguments)

4. After you’ve collected enough findings (data), you should logically discuss/interpret/argue why those findings could help to understand the research problem. This section is also known as Analysis. What are your assumptions and interpretations of the findings? Why they are important for you to understand your research problem? It depends on your writing style. Combining this section with the last section could benefit from using less words. If that is your choice, then use the heading Findings and Analysis. Your report should go beyond a simple summary of observations and facts (i.e. findings). You must debate or argue why those data is useful (analysis). Including the sources without good justification will only get 10 marks (see assessments criteria above).
5. The final paragraph(s) should be devoted to your research implications and conclusion. This section illustrates how the findings will be used particularly relates to your marketing problem and your research design. You should be very clear about how your research has enabled you to improve the following:

• marketing research problem: Use the information you have gathered to either confirm or modify the marketing research problem that you made in your initial research proposal. Did the new data provide new thoughts on your research problem? If not, why not?
• research design: Have you learned something that will enable you to be more specific with your research sub-questions, your hypotheses, your choice of participants/respondents, etc.? Did the data help you to write some of your questions for your next assignment? How can the data help you make decisions in designing your focus group discussion guide (Malhotra, 2012, pp. 154-5)?
• Your answer to the problem: This is only your first step in researching your research problem; like an interim report. Do not recommend any action based on the data.
  Your research may uncover information directly relevant to your marketing research problem. If it does, how you are going to refine your research problem differently (i.e., to research something that is not yet known). If it does not, then reaffirm the importance of your current research problem and state how you are going to dig into the issues further in your next assignment (focus group research).

Be sure to give full and complete references for all of your sources in APA style. Your assignment 1 has already given you an opportunity to master that skill. If you are still unsure of citing and referencing certain types of data, go to apastyle.org or get a copy of the APA manual from Douglas library. Douglas library website also provides some information on this topic. You can also get help from Douglas Learning centre.

 

 

Assignment 3: Focus Group Research (10%)

In this assignment, you will conduct a focus group interview. This research will involve human subjects, so informed consent must be obtained. Go to the College research ethics webpage for checklist and templates https://www.douglascollege.ca/about-douglas/groups-and-organizations/research-ethics-board.

Assessment parts	Marks*	Percent of final course grade
Introduction and objectives	10
Method and procedures; informed consent	15
Discussion Guide and a list of Participants	15
Summary of findings	30
Implications and conclusion	30
Total	100	10%
*In order to obtain full marks in each part, your work needs to satisfy the grading criteria below. Note: All group work is subject to peer evaluation. See the peer evaluation form at the end of this document. You must complete your personal peer evaluation and submit it via Blackboard for every group paper.

Introduction

In this assignment, you will complete a second piece of qualitative research, a focus group study. Again, the objective of your research is to refine your marketing research problem and research design; and to collect information to address the marketing research problem.

 

Instructions

Refer to the six steps in the procedure for conducting a focus group presented in your textbook. This is the process that you will use to prepare, conduct, and report on your focus group. This assignment will take considerable effort to plan and schedule. You may find that you complete the plan and then have to wait before everyone is available to conduct the focus group.

In a report of approximately 1,000–1,500 words (10% exceeded the word limit will not be read), describe the results of your focus group research and its implications for your marketing research question and your research design. Your report must include the following sections:

1. Introduction and Objectives: Briefly discuss the context of the study and how the secondary research has contributed to the current step of the research. Clearly state the current marketing research problem and the goals of this study (What information would be collected and how they would be used?).
2. Method and procedures: Briefly discuss the environment that you chose or created for your focus group, including the equipment that you planned to capture the feedback. You must design an informed consent form and give it to your participants prior to the interview. If you are unsure about what is an informed consent form is, do a quick search on the Internet and Douglas College research ethics webpage. Please attach a sample in the appendix.

   Briefly discuss your method for recruiting and selecting participants, including your screening method, sample criteria and any incentives that you provided. Your focus group should include at least eight (8) participants. You should schedule more participants to accommodate no-shows; it is your responsibility to assemble a group that is large enough. You should include the date, the duration and other details of conducting the focus group.

3. Discussion guide: You are required to use a discussion guide. An example is on pages 154 and 155 of your textbook. You need to tell the reader where to locate your discussion guide (i.e., in an appendix), and refer to it, as required, in the summary of findings. Your discussion guide should cover at least three major themes (or research sub-questions), with several questions prepared for each. Focus on the most important issues and on those that you want to learn more about before you invest your time in survey research. Your focus group should last roughly an hour. In addition, you should include a list of participants (including their pseudonym [if you have promised them confidentiality], and demographics data) in an appendix. Use a table to list them one by one. This will provide a profile of who was involved.
4. Summary of findings: This will be the bulk of your report. It is an excellent idea to include subheadings that cover the major topics or issues. Be clear about how common themes emerge. You should probe beneath the surface answers and dig deeper into why certain things are meant to the participants. Pay attention to the emotional and non-verbal clues when people expressing their opinions. Do not take sides or act as an expert. This could hinder the participants’ responses (e.g., giving a socially desirable answer). Use participants’ own voices and quotes (as citations) to relate specific reactions and to support your claim. Do not use quantitative terms, such as percentage, in analyzing your data. This is qualitative research. Insights and new terms/variables are more important and helpful than numeric data. When quoting the participants own words, use proper APA style (see http://blog.apastyle.org/apastyle/interview/ for details and examples). Remember in your last assignment (secondary research), you use the publicly available publication to support your claim. In this paper (focus group study), you use the participants’ own voice for the same purpose (support your claims).
5. Implications and Conclusion: Once again, your report must go beyond simple descriptions of the data. You must demonstrate insights, critical thinking and logical rationale of arguments. Have you delivered what you set out to do in the objective paragraph(s)? As this is an interim paper of the entire study, you perhaps should highlight how this step can shed light on your next step (survey research). What are the implications for the marketing research problem, and the research design (sampling, scaling, variables, questions wording, etc.)? Give concrete examples.

 

Note:

You do not need to include the signed informed consent forms, nor a transcript/ recording of your focus group. You may want to record the session (with the permission of the participants), but make it clear that this is for a school project. Invest your time in carefully considering what is meant, rather than what is said.

Also, be mindful that focus group studies are used to present qualitative, not quantitative data. It is not very meaningful to say that “forty percent of participants believed …” when you only have eight participants in the room. Keep your observations focused on insights and general comments, not numbers.

 

 

 

 

Assignment 4: Survey Research (10%) – Group

In this assignment, you will select samples, design a questionnaire, determine scaling and measurements, conduct a pretest and perform the associated fieldwork. This research will involve human subjects, so informed consent should be obtained. The introductory paragraph of the actual questionnaire can serve this purpose.

Assessment parts	Marks*	Percent of final course grade
Introduction and background	10
Methods	10
Question design	30
Pretesting	15
Actual questionnaire layout	10
Summary of participants	10
Reflection	15
Total	100	10%
*In order to obtain full marks in each part, your work needs to satisfy the grading criteria below. Note: All group work is subject to peer evaluation. See the peer evaluation form at the end of this document. You must complete your personal peer evaluation and submit it via Blackboard for every group paper.

Introduction

In this assignment, you will design and conduct a third type of research, a survey. Now that your qualitative research is completed, the objective of this study is to use quantitative methods to address the marketing research problem, and to test the survey you have created.

Instructions

Refer to the questionnaire design checklist in your textbook. Use this checklist as the process that you will follow to prepare and conduct your survey. The data analysis and conclusion will take place in the next assignment.

In a report of approximately 1,000–1,500 words (10% exceeded the word limit will not be read), discuss the process of preparing and conducting a survey study. Your report must include the following sections:

 

• Introduction and Background: Briefly discuss the background of the current study (i.e. what has been done previously). Clearly state the purposes of this paper, your final marketing research problem (which may have been revised as a result of the previous qualitative studies) and the associated research components (if any). Describe and justify briefly the information you need, and your sampling plan (target population and sample size, etc.) of this study.
• Methods: Briefly discuss the sampling method(s) you will use. Then discuss 2 types of survey administration methods chosen with rationales and how you will engage the respondents. You must execute your questionnaire using an electronic method and a personal method.
  • For your electronic method, you may choose to use email or one of the free survey tools available on the Internet. There are many options, including the following:
    • Excel Survey
    • Google Forms
    • http://www.qualtrics.com

Remember, you cannot count the pretesting (personal method) as one of the 2 methods required.

• Question design: In this part, you must create a table that lists your questions (wordings), question types, scaling and measurement and your justification of these choices. Use the Table 11.3 Questionnaire Design Checklist. The questions must match your final questionnaire (not the one before-pretesting). For example:

Question	Question type	Scale/Measurements	Justification of your question type, scale/measurement
1.  Do you read your textbook every day?	Dichotomous	Scaling: Non-Comparative Forced Scale; Measurement: Nominal	XXXYYYZZA?@#$
2.

Keep this discussion precise and relevant. Your questionnaire design should demonstrate a strong understanding of the range of question types, wordings and scales/measurements that have been discussed in the modules. You should have an introduction and approximately ten questions including a min. of 2 relevant demographic questions. You must justify the use of scaling/measurements, wording, and question structure to get good marks. Simply listing the questions types, scales/measurement and question wordings (without justification) does not show any of your understanding of this section. Remember, you cannot promise confidentiality if you are using a web server that is saved in the US.

• Pretesting: Explain what you have done to pretest your questionnaire and how you have applied what you learned. You should attach a before-pretesting and an after-pretesting (final) questionnaires in the appendix. Refer to it when justifying your decisions of making those changes. Pretest should be done face to face (disregarding your administration methods) with at least 4 people. If significant changes were made, a second round of pretesting should be considered (for at least 2-3 people).

• Actual questionnaire layout: Only include a questionnaire before pretesting and one after pretesting in the appendix. This research will involve human subjects, so you must obtain consent. The introductory paragraph of the actual questionnaire can serve this purpose.

• Summary of participants: Include a brief summary of the sample, including the percentage of their demographic data. Do not include the results of other questions (they are for your next assignment). Use simple counts (frequencies) and averages (means) to describe them, and put them in an appendix. Do not post a list of participants without summarizing it. The style of summary of participants in quantitative research (such as a survey) is different than qualitative research (such as focus group). This summary demonstrates that you reached an adequate number of participants and that they were part of your target population. You must collect at least thirty (30) questionnaires (per group member) with qualified individuals in order to have sufficient data for the next assignment.
• Reflection: For this report, you are not asked to report your findings (except the demographic data: the summary of participants for your last section). This will be part of your next assignment. You are invited to take some time to reflect on the survey design and fieldwork process and how effective you think it was in further exploring your marketing research problem. Be critical to your learning and reflect rather than describe what you have learned. In a nutshell, what did these experiences (questionnaire design, pretesting and data collection in fieldwork) teach you? What are your takeaways?

 

Note:

You do not need to include the data that you collected. In the next assignment, you will be asked to code/enter the data and to analyze the results.

 

 

Assignment 5: Research Report (12%) and Presentation (8%) – Group

In this assignment, you will write a report summarizing your research findings, implications and conclusion. This is the final step of your research project.

Assessment parts	Marks*	Percent of final course grade
Executive summary	10
Introduction and problem definition	4
Approach to the problem	4
Research Design	4
Data cleaning and analytical methods	8
Results	40
Conclusions and recommendations (future study)	15
Limitations and caveats	5
SPSS file	10
Total	100	12%
*In order to obtain full marks in each part, your work needs to satisfy the grading criteria below. Note: All group work is subject to peer evaluation. See the peer evaluation form at the end of this document.  You must complete your personal peer evaluation and submit it via Blackboard for every group paper.

Introduction

In this assignment, you will write a marketing research report that will summarize the research that you have conducted so far. You will need to apply the material from the whole course to complete this assignment. The feedback that you have received on past assignments will be especially helpful as you can integrate them into this assignment.

Instructions

Write a concise research report that includes elements of a marketing research report. You will document and analyze your findings and then make recommendations for a future course of actions, including future research.

 

In a report of approximately 1,000–1,500 words (10% exceeded the word limit will not be read), prepare a research report. Information on most of the sections can be found in your textbook and you should review them prior to the actual writing. Be sure to focus on answering the marketing research problem and how it can provide insight into the management decision problem. You should highlight the specific research components that you set out to accomplish. Many of the issues have been discussed in your earlier assignments, so make sure to include what is relevant. Your report must cover the following sections:

1. Title page: This is not included in your word count.
2. Executive summary (roughly 150-200 words): Be concise! It must include:
   1. the chosen management problem and its associated marketing research problem; (approx.30 words)
   2. the goals of the study (i.e. what is set out to do?); (approx.30 words)
   3. major findings (use numbers/percentages to support your claims), recommendation and conclusions of the study (approx. 140 words)
3. Introduction and Problem definition: Introduce the research study briefly. State precisely what you are setting out to study. Briefly describe and justify your management decision problem and the marketing research problem.
4. Approach to the problem: If you have adopted a theory or a model to guide the study, describe it here. If you haven’t, briefly discuss your development of the research hypotheses and research components – the research sub-questions. Remember, you have used at least 3 research components (or issues) in your focus group study.
5. Research design: This is about the how of the study. Describe the overall research design (exploratory, conclusive, descriptive, causal, combination, etc.). Discuss the methods of the study and justify briefly all the choices that you’ve made. Concentrate on making this short, clear, and informative because most of the methods had been discussed in earlier assignments. You should save space (word counts) for the next few sections. Do not include any methods in detail.
6. Data cleaning and analytical methods: Describe what tools and statistical methods you have used in collecting, cleaning, coding and analyzing your questionnaire data and why. There are some specifics in your results section that will give your idea what to include (see below).
7. Results: This will be the bulk of your report. The results should be organized in a coherent and logical way that supports your arguments. The presentation and interpretation of the results should be geared directly to the research components (that you have discussed in the “Approach” above) and the required information that you have suggested in the research proposal (i.e. the initial goals of this study).

In quantitative research, your goal is to quantify your results in tables and graphs. However, tables and graphs can’t explain itself; you need to interpret those data. For example, 50% of the samples take buses. The reader will not understand the meaning of 50% unless you have indicated that it is good, bad or beyond the normal when comparing to the past data.

First, use frequency distributions on ALL questions (also known as descriptive statistics). Use at least two (2) tables and two (2) graphs while in some of the questions.

Second, use at least two (2) cross-tabulations (bivariate or multivariate analysis) in answering your marketing research problem. You need to use chi-square statistics to identify relationships, statistical significance, and strength of relationships of your crosstab analysis. Use the demographic data (independent variables) to cross other questions. Only include tables with sig. (p =0.05) relationship.

Be sure that everything is properly labelled, referenced and numbered in APA style. Make sure that everything you write is relevant to your marketing research problem. Tell the reader where to see these tables/graphs if they are not in the main body.

8. Conclusions and recommendations: This section, you need to summarize your interpretations considering the problem being addressed and demonstrate your critical thinking skill in arriving conclusions of this study. Discuss the various insights you have learned based on the results/findings and why managers should accept your recommendations. Based on your findings, recommend and justify follow-up research that you think is appropriate to fully understand this research problem. Be very clear about how you will improve on your research design (e.g., the target population, survey method, survey questions, size of sample, etc.).
9. Limitations and caveats: Consider the trade-offs that you’ve made and acknowledge the limitations that resulted. Do not write something you have known from day one, such as the limitations of sample size or the sampling method (e.g. non-probability sampling). These are the decisions you have made and justified. Find something that you did not anticipate in your initial plan.
10. References and Appendix
11. Submit your .sav file (SPSS data file)

Group Presentation (8%)

Pretend this is the time your client has returned to see the final research result. You are required to present your project findings and answer all the questions. Create a PowerPoint presentation like the sequence of your written report. You should leave a 10-minute Q&A time. The total time of your presentation should be approx. 25 minutes. Think about what your client wants to know (refer back to the management decision question). Submit your PowerPoint slides with your final report via Turnitin.

Assessment parts (8%)
Introduction and problem definition	/5
Approach/Research Design	/5
Data analysis/Data Cleaning	/5
Results	/25
Conclusions and recommendations (well supported by the data; future study)	/30
Limitations and caveats	/10
How well does the presentation connect to Management Decision question?	/10
PowerPoint Slide: Organized logically and Professionally?	/10
Total	/100

Note: All group work is subject to peer evaluation and instructor evaluation. See an example of the peer evaluation form at the end of this document.

 

 

An example Peer Evaluation

***Confidential ***

Your final mark will be adjusted based on this and observations of your instructor.

 

Your name:

Group:

Assignment number:

Member name (first & last)	Activities and Support Given to the Project Assignment	Contribution %
1.   You		XXX
2.
3.
4.
5.

                                                            Total: 100 %

Directions:

Make sure you fill out the entire form with as many details as possible. The total contribution factor cannot be higher than 100%. You DO NOT give any percent to yourself. For example, if there were 4 other people in your group, and you felt they all did about the same amount of work, you would give them each 25. But if you felt one person did only 1/3 of what they should have, and the other 3 picked up the slack, you might give 10, 30, 30, 30 (equal to 100).

Please do not show this to your teammate but submitting via Blackboard! Include comments in the space below if you have given uneven marks.

Comments:

 

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