Arizona State University
MKT 352: Marketing Research
Final Project Brief
Overview
As a part of MKT 352, you will complete a semester long market research project. The goal of this project is to apply what you have learned throughout the semester and gain experience producing a complete “marketing research” package, from beginning to end. You will complete this project in groups of four to six members, which will be determined early in the semester.
The topic of your research is up to you, provided that you can complete a thorough investigation of the topic for your final project. I realize that giving students this much freedom may be daunting: We often like to have boundaries that shape our goals and give us direction. However, in the past, giving students the option to choose the company and problem that they want to investigate leads to much more exciting results. You may pick the company you are currently employed at, a company that you purchase from regularly, one you plan to target for employment after graduation, or one that is producing something new and you’re curious what their marketing research process might have looked like.
To help guide you through this process, there will be regular checkpoints throughout the semester (in the form of the four assignments). I will provide feedback at some of the stages, so you will have an opportunity to improve your project before the final deliverable is due at the end of the semester. Additionally, we will have multiple working sessions and classes where I personally help you with your project. The dates and goals are listed on the course schedule.
The project consists of four deliverables: midterm presentation, final presentation, executive summary, and group evaluation.
Project Delivery Structure
Note: There is some flexibility in how you develop the project, so view this as a “strong suggestion.” If something you want to do doesn’t quite fit here, consult with me and I can make sure you are on the right track.
Deliverable #1: Midterm Presentation (30 points)
Course Project Title Page(s)
Project Name
Team Members and Submission Date
Introduction
What is the problem statement (goal) of this research? What issue(s) are you trying to solve?
Why is this research goal important and meaningful to study? (Minimum of three reasons)
To achieve the overall research goal, what are your specific research questions?
For example, describing target customers, probing relationships, comparing purchase decision factors.
Situational Analysis
Background information of the business
What important information would a reader need to understand your analyses?
Assume the reader has general business knowledge, but not much company-specific or marketing research knowledge.
SWOT analysis
Identify strengths (internal), weaknesses (internal), opportunities (external), and threats (external).
This will be based on your business knowledge and secondary research, not from your primary research in this course.
This is to be informative but is not the purpose of your project.
Current situation and research relevant information (e.g., news, media, events, statistics, etc.)
What is going on with the business currently and how is this relevant to your research?
While it is not technically necessary to conduct an informational interview with an employee at your company of choice, it may be wise/beneficial.
Methods
Conceptual framework of this research (i.e., how the specific research questions serve the goal cohesively)
What relationships do you expect to find? Why do you expect to see these relationships manifest? (Draw from your prior business/marketing background and coursework.)
An overly simplistic example is that “higher customer satisfaction leads to greater repurchase intentions.” What sort of relationships do you expect, and why?
Research design (for this section, be specific to your research and don’t recap too much information from the lectures/textbook):
Quantitative research questions
Descriptive design
Which research questions are suitable to address with quantitative research?
Sample (who are your respondents and what is the sample size)
Deliverable #2: Final Presentation (30 points)
Recap Midterm Presentation
Include a brief recap of the material covered in the midterm presentation. We all will have attended your midterm presentation, so don’t feel like you need to restate everything you already discussed. That being said, make sure to set the stage for us so we can have a good understanding as you move to the results.
Results
Which analyses are used to answer each specific question?
Be specific on why you used certain tests, such as t- and Z-tests, ANOVA, correlations, regression, or other methods
Findings of statistical analyses
Leave out the very detailed analyses. You do not need to include every piece of SPSS output in the write-up, and you do not need to include information on every variable you measured.
Causal design (optional; do this if you conducted an experiment)
How do you describe your experimental procedure?
Findings of your causal research.
Strategic Recommendations
Frame these based on your research question.
Discuss the results from a managerial perspective, with numbers to illustrate things such as means and significance.
This is the highlight and most important part of your presentation. Focus on these.
Why do your findings matter? What can the organization do with your findings?
Think about the results section as the “What?” and the Strategic Recommendations section as the “So What?” and “Now What?” components.
Deliverable #3: Executive Summary Paper (15 points)
You will write an approximately two-page paper covering the “highlights” of your project.
Provide an overview of the whole report for an “executive” who is busy and does not have time to read the finer details.
Give enough information so that the executive can make an informed decision. Briefly cover the problem, data and analysis, conclusions, and offer actionable recommendations.
This is due at the same time as your final presentation.
Deliverable #4: Group Evaluation (5 points)
You will complete a group evaluation for each team member as to their contribution to the group. More information will be provided near the end of the semester.
It is strongly encouraged to use Slack or Google Docs for your work as the communication patterns and effort can be tracked on these platforms.