Marketing Research (MBA notes & case studies)

Management (MBA) questions on Marketing Research.

Question: Proposed Objectives (REAN) – 400 Words
Focus on the objectives, based on what you know about the organisation and the research that you’ve undertaken. You need to suggest based on your report findings
at what should the organisation now focus on in terms of recommendations, in terms of objectives. These can be the smart or green objectives. Refer Canvas on how to put together smart or green objective).

Assessment:
Develop REAN objectives for the case business
Provide clear recommendations for implementation, drawing on your opportunities from the SWOT.
Discuss the proposed marketing & branding & sales strategy and identify future developments available for the business.

Q. 40 years back, Sita Travels was a renowned brand in Delhi, in the travel and tourism industry. The company boasted of a loyal clientele, competitive travel packages, efficient and motivated employees and a vision to become the No. 1 player pan India. In those days, the industry comprised few players hence there wasn’t too much competition to be faced. However, in recent times, with the online platform and players emerging such as Makemytrip, Trivago, Yatra etc. offering packages at throwaway prices and reaching out at minimal costs to the mobile savvy, internet savvy consumer, it is indeed giving the traditional companies a run for their money. Loss of clientele, revenue and market shares have made Sita Travels sit up and wonder as to what needs to be done to address this issue. Towards this management problem, state the research objective(s) and propose a research design for this study; describing the secondary and primary sources of data, research design, research method, target respondent, contact method etc.

Q) 3. A national chain of casual and formal men’s wear is interested to understand the preferences of men when it comes to the purchase of clothing. The objectives of the research are:

To understand the preferences of clothing by occasion
To understand differences in preferences by income group and geographical area
To understand satisfaction of customers with their brand vis-à-vis other competitor brands

In particular, the management wants to understand the as to how the buying behaviour or preferences of men for clothing are influenced by variables such as (1) occasion of use (2) geography of the customer (3) income group of the customer and (4) competition

A list of customers has been procured from internal company records. Their personal records also include information on their personal income and geography.

a. Assuming that the management has entrusted you with this research, if a sample has to be drawn from this sampling frame, which sample selection method would you choose and why? Suggest any two methods and justify your answer.
b. If you have to prepare an Analysis Plan for this research, which simple and advanced analytical tools will you recommend for analyzing the data ? Suggest at least three tools and support with a justification.

Q) The Distance Education Council (DEC) wants to conduct a research among the various distance learners across different colleges, universities and courses across India. Since the population of distance learners is widely dispersed, the research team at DEC feels that it may be effective to conduct an online or telephonic survey. However, these methods have their own drawbacks. Besides, the information to be collected is quite detailed which is prompting the researchers to consider other approaches such as a face-to-face survey.

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of the various data collection methods available to the researchers at DEC and recommend an approach.

Q) Nestle wanted to understand the key challenges that their brand Maggi is likely to face in its comeback; in the wake of more aggressive competition from competitors such as Sunfeast Yippee noodles and Patanjali Atta noodles. The research agency took this brief from Nestle and gave instructions to its team to find out the customer satisfaction with Maggi and its arch rivals. “Specifying the research objective in the most clear and precise form, is the most crucial step involved in the research process”. Evaluate this statement in the light of this case and discuss how the steps involved in this research process (as proposed by the research agency) will turn out to be different from what Nestle expects as the research outcome.

Q) Scene 1: Nivedita, an interviewer for a data collection agency, approached a couple at the mall seeming to be hailing from a rural background and asked the woman, if she would like to participate in a marketing research survey. The couple quickly walked away. A group of teenage girls overheard Nivedita and asked her if they could participate. They were from rural areas, and they would like to answer Nivedita’s questions. Nivedita was ecstatic! She could fill a good portion of her sample with these helpful girls! Scene 2: Nivedita had a list of names and contact details of 100 women in Faisapur in U.P. She started with the top 5 names. In 4 out of 5 cases, the women either didn’t respond to her request or refused to participate. Only one woman took the survey. How will she reach out to these 100 shortlisted women in one week? It seemed to be a daunting task as of now. Nivedita was confused.

The reason was simple: The “normal” rules for conducting a marketing research survey do not apply when the target sample is a Rural population. Nivedita was one of the women researchers who had been appointed by an NGO for conducting a research on the sanitation and personal hygiene methods being used by women in rural areas. The objective was to capture the aftermath of the awareness campaigns been done on account of the Indian Household Latrines (IHHL), School Sanitation and Hygiene Education and Anganwadi toilets. After a whole lot of debate and discussion, it had been decided that the respondents for this survey shall be rural girls / women ranging from a broad age group of 12-60 years. For conducting a survey among this wide audience, two things were done:  A list of women was procured from secondary sources of data  The women were segregated on the basis of age into the following categories: 12-17, 18-25, 26-35, 36 – 45, 46-60 The sampling method had also been very scientifically decided. However, reaching out to these women unknown to the researcher, unrelated to each other, was not working out, no matter how scientific the approach may be. With this very first experience shared by Nivedita as a part of the pilot, the team was a bit confused on whether their understanding of the rural research methods is correct. Anxiety was creeping in as to what should be the ideal method to choose this sample of rural girls / women?

a. To choose this sample of rural girls / women, which sampling methods will you consider most appropriate and why? Suggest any two methods and justify your answer.
b. Suggest some innovative interview methods to reach out to the target audience

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