Instructions: Your project must incorporate the following elements:

• Company and Organizational Background-Identify a company and provide a brief description of the goods and services it provides, its size, and the locations where it does business.

• Management-Decision Problem or Business Issue Identify a business issue for this company that requires a managerial decision. You can be inventive here.

  • Fully describe the business issue-what is the issue; who or what does it affect and how, where, and when does it affect them? Some examples of a suitable business issue to write on include: whether the company should invest research money in new product development; whether the company should expand to a new geographic area; or whether the company should benchmark its performance against its competitors. Don't be limited by this list. You can use any other business issue that requires marketing research.

• Hypotheses

  • Clearly state the hypotheses to be tested.

• Research Objectives and Question

  • Based on the problem or issue identified above, identify the research question that needs to be answered.

  • Explain why this is the appropriate question.

  • What is the hypothesis to be tested?

• Research Approach

  • Describe the research approach that should be taken to best test your hypothesis and answer your research question.

  • Be sure to describe how you would gather your data for this research project (e.g., a survey, focus group, intercept interviews or other methods).

  • Discuss how and where the research would take place, the sample size, and who would conduct the research.

  • Identify any potential ethical issues associated with the research.

• Survey and Interview Guide

  • Design a survey with a minimum of 10 questions.

  • Explain the reason for including each question. Describe the type of scale you are using. Describe the benefits of the data you expect that each question will produce.

  • Design a face-to-face interview guide with three questions that would be used in a qualitative approach.

• Statistical Tests

  •  Identify the types of statistical tests you would use on the collected data.

  •  Explain why you would use these tests.

• Challenges

  • Identify any potential shortcomings in your research approach and any ethical concerns.

  • Describe how you would handle each of the above.