Consumer behavior research can be very expensive and time consuming. How do companies decide/justify spending money on research? Many large companies that regularly conduct research begin with a very small exploratory project that is often done with the expertise that is already staffed in the Marketing Department. Once this is done and if it’s found you need a national sample then, you can pitch the CFO for the money needed to go forward. You have been put in the position of conducting the exploratory research to find if you need to hire an expensive outside Consumer Behavior Research firm to take the research to the next level. You have been assigned a brand/product item for your first consumer behavior research project (brand assigned at random by Professor). Complete sections one and three based on secondary data collected through outside research.

Section 1: Background

A) Give some introductory information about your product/brand. Include the current status of the four P’s. Not needed is historic information (company beginnings, etc.). Only current data is needed here.

B) Research and discuss the brands target market:

demographics

also include the geographics, psychographics and any behavior-based segmenting variables (label them by base)

typical decision-making aspects (How would the target go through the Consumer Decision Process? Where in the Consumer Decision Process does there seem to be issues?)

identify one market segment that you will discuss as a target market using segmenting variables discussed above.

Section 2: Consumer Influences

Identify and analyze three of the most relevant aspects of consumer influences and their effect on the sale/adoption of the brand/product item. Provide reasoning why you believe the influence is relevant.

Examples of what might be included:

Attitude

Perception

Learning/Memory/Consumer Information Processing

Motivation

Emotion

Personality

External Influences:

family

culture

social class

reference groups

situation

generation

any other external influences.

Section 3: Marketing Strategy

Identify current issues that may need consumer behavior research. Outline at least FIVE questions (relating directly to Consumer Behavior internal and or external factors). Include both closed-ended and open-ended questioning. DO NOT question using marketing terms or concepts (ex. What are your perceptions of the brand?). Qualifying questions (demographic or otherwise) are not included in the five required but you can ask these to get the correct sample for your survey. Explain why each question needs to asked in terms of the Marketing Mix (4 P’s). State the question and then give the reasoning. Be sure to organize by paragraph. For example, an open-ended question might be “Are the current promotions being used by (the brand) effective in your eyes? Explain why or why not." A closed-ended question provides all the answers for the respondent. An example would be: "Of the following celebrities that endorsed (the brand) who, in your opinion influenced you the most to feel good or actually purchase (the brand) (A) Micheal Phelps, (B) Tiger Woods, (C) Micheal Jordan, (D) Martina Navratilova (E) none were very influential for me

Examples of areas where questions regarding internal or external factors can be paired are:

advertising

consumer decision process (be specific which stage)

public relations and publicity

sponsorship

cross promotion

product distribution (specific retailer, shelving, etc.)

product placement

alternative media

pricing

sales activities

customer service

packaging

brand name, brand images, brand personality figures or celebrity endorsers

Section 4: Survey Consumers

Create a 7 to 10-question survey on SurveyMonkey.com.(use the free option) using the questions developed in section 3. Collect survey results from 10-15 consumers that would be a part of the main target segment discussed in section 1. In this section, tell how you recruited subjects to take the survey. Did you offer any incentive? Were there difficulties in doing this?

Section 5: Analyze Finding/Conclusion

Analyze your findings from the survey, including a minimum of one table. Discuss how your findings (even though they are from a very small sample) could be the basis for a larger research project to be conducted by the brand. A copy of the survey itself and your resulting data must be included in your presentation (results can be in table form). Last, make your recommendation if there needs to be a larger study conducted or not (and why). Identify and recommend which type of research approach should be done (Positivist or Interpretivist) and why.

Submission Requirements

Your final project must be submitted as follows:

PowerPoint presentation format.

No fewer than 20 slides organized by topic (do not use "notes" on the bottom of the slide)

Typed, double-spaced, in 16-18-point Times New Roman

Prepared using an acceptable college-level style guide such as APA, MLA, or UMUC's Guide to Writing and Research; all of these guides can be found in the virtual UMUC library

Presented in such a way that the reader can clearly understand your logic and conclusions.

Posted in your Assignments folder not later than midnight on the due date for this assignment, according to the syllabus

Use required headings

Citations (end/foot notes) within text is required as well as a bibliography at the end of the paper

Cover page and bibliography are required and included in the slide number.

Keep text analysis in the business tradition of a 3rd person voice (no I, me or my, etc).

DO NOT use portions of a another project (typically Principles of Marketing 350) to plug into any of the requirements for this project. The two projects are very different.