Part A

Your company is interested in improving the company’s performance in terms of customer satisfaction or/and loyalty. You are responsible for the entire marketing research plan.

Please describe your plan following the six steps in marketing research process. Be sure to describe the background of your selected company including its size, the products it makes, the services it provides, its visions and missions. You are required to develop a specific marketing plan for this company.

Hints#1: In step two, please suggest two variables that may affect the company’s performance as shown in the following conceptual model:

Be sure to write down the corresponding hypotheses, H1 and H2, based on your choice of X and Y.

Hints#2: In step three, please choose an appropriate research design from the three broad categories of research design. You can skip the details of the sampling plan in Part A as you will discuss it in Part B.

Hints#3: In step five, please state the statistical technique(s) (i.e., regression, t-test or ANOVA) that you will use to test your hypotheses. Be sure to describe the applicability of the selected statistical technique(s). 

Part B

Your company decided to use one of the following sampling methods to select a sample of 400 respondents from its customer contact list. Your company would like to estimate the level of customer satisfaction of all its customers based on the selected samples.

The selection of the sampling method depends on the 3rd numerical value of your student ID. For example, the 3rd digit of s2143657 is “4”, then the selection would be “Cluster Sampling” according to the table below. You are then required to use “Cluster Sampling” to complete your analysis.

Describe how you could collect data using the stated sampling method. Additionally, discuss the advantages and disadvantage of the selected sampling method and explain whether or not it is the best alternative among other methods.

Question

“ This course focuses on the principles, methods and skills of marketing research, and major topics include research planning and design, sampling, data collection, and data analysis.”

A. According to your own experience, which areas in this course you find the most interesting or challenging to you? Briefly explain why.

B. Critically discuss how to apply what you have leant in this course in your daily life.