1. You are the marketing manager for a car manufacturer and need to gather data concerning some of your major competitors. List at least two sources from the Internet that would provide you with pertinent research. Also indicate why these would be considered the most ideal for your research.

2. Peer Reponse To achieve and maintain a competitive advantage in reaching and selling to your target market, you must possess a thorough knowledge of your competition. An in-depth competitive analysis will provide you with the following:An understanding of how your existing and potential customers rate the competition. A positive identification of your competitor's strengths and weaknesses. A mechanism to develop effective competitive strategies in your target market.According to Honda, you might want to do your Civic duty and get Fit. Honda Motor is Japan's #2 automaker (after Toyota) and the world's largest motorcycle producer. The company's car models include the Accord, CR-V, Civic, Element, and Fit; gasoline-electric hybrid versions of the Civic and Accord; and seven models of the luxury Acura line. Honda's line of motorcycles includes everything from scooters to super-bikes. The company also makes a line of ATV and personal watercraft. Honda's power products division makes commercial and residential machinery (lawn mowers, snow blowers, and tillers); portable generators; and outboard motors. Almost 75% of Honda Motor sales come from outside Japan. Honda competitors are; Nissan ,Suzuki and Toyota.

3. What's the difference between qualitative and quantitative measures? When might you use one versus the other?

4. Peer Reponse According to my research while quantitative and qualitative research approaches each have their strengths and weaknesses, they can be extremely effective in combination with one another. You can use qualitative research to identify the factors that affect the areas under investigation, then use that information to devise quantitative research that assesses how these factors would affect user preferences. To continue our earlier example regarding display preferences: if qualitative research had identified display type such as TV, computer monitor, or mobile phone display the researchers could have used that information to construct quantitative research that would let them determine how these variables might affect user preferences. At the same time, you can build trends that you've identified through quantitative research into qualitative data-collection methods and, thus verify the trends.