Marketing Research Project Assignment:
Marketing Research PROPOSAL
TABLE OF CONTENTS
Assignment Summary & Overview:
2
Learning Goals:
2
Resources for Assignment
3
Format of your Market Research PROPOSAL
4
Project Rules for Your Questionnaire Design
7
PROJECT 1: STUDENT HELP & FAQ SECTION
8
Tip 1: Identifying an Interesting and Appropriate Research Question
8
RQ Source #1: A Business Problem Triggers the Need for Marketing Research
8
RQ Source #2: Identify an Interesting Previous Study to Modify and Replicate
9
RQ Source #3: A Recent News Article or Event Inspires a Research Project
10
RQ Source #4: A Student Observes a Market Problem from the Perspective of the Consumer
11
Tip 2: Identifying a Feasible Marketing Research Question
13
Suggestion 1: Your Research Question calls for cross-sectional, not longitudinal, analysis.
13
Suggestion 2: Your Research Question has either (or both): a (1) large qualifying population of
interest that is (2) easy to identify in the population.
13
Suggestion 3: Your Research Question has a population of interest that is not limited to only studying
SDSU students.
14
Suggestion 4: Your Research Question can be investigated online or brief in-person survey /
experiment.
14
Tip 3: Defining / Motivating the Business & Research Problem
15
Tip 4: Writing Clear Marketing Research Questions / Objectives
17
Tip 5: MRP Tips - Providing High Quality Operational Definitions
19
Tip 6: Data Collection Instruments and Code Books
22
Tip 7: Making Sure Your Qualtrics Survey Instrument is Ready to Go
24
GENERAL SURVEY ISSUES COMMONLY OVERLOOKED BY STUDENTS:
24
QUALTRICS ISSUES TO CHECK:
24
Tip 8 - Explaining Your Data Collection Methods & Sampling Technique Clearly & Effectively
26
Tip 9: Presenting your Qualtrics Survey in Your Appendix
28
GRADING RUBRIC PROJECT 1
29
Page 1 of 28
Assignment Summary & Overview:
You will develop a high quality and feasible marketing research project that utilizes primary
research and an online questionnaire (and/or experiment for data collection).
Your proposal will be about a specific r esearch question you choose (see the online discussion
for the broad topic area selected by the professor).
This proposal will be graded and evaluated by the professor.
Following Project 1, after the professor has graded and evaluated all of the student proposals,
the professor will then select a few “best in class” research proposals. The professor will merge
these research proposals into a single “grand” research proposal and single, integrated online
questionnaire.
Each student will then be responsible for collecting data using this online instrument. In Project
2, each individual student will choose which portion(s) of the collected data they wish to analyze
and report upon.
Learning Goals of Project 1:
●
●
●
●
●
Identify a marketing problem (business, social, or academic) that is (at least partly)
addressable via a research study.
Explain the significance of the marketing problem using, in part, secondary research.
Demonstrate the ability to translate a marketing problem into one appropriate research
question that is clear and feasible to address within the resource constraints.
Select an appropriate, feasible research design (appropriate for research question &
appropriate within resource constraints) and defend the appropriateness (and note
limitations / risks) of the research design. This includes:
○ The data collection / sampling procedure
○ The instrument(s) used for data collection
○ The coding / scoring protocol
Develop and present the aforementioned in a professional-grade market research
proposal
Page 2 of 28
Resources for this Assignment
There are a wide variety of resources made available to you for this project. They are meant to
help illustrate / guide / clarify a variety of issues that students often have when confronted with
the task of creating a market research proposal.
●
●
●
●
●
This Document
○ I have EXTENSIVE FAQ, tips, discussion, and suggestions in this document. A
thorough reading of this document (yes, the Appendices as well!) is expected.
Your assigned readings
○ One assigned chapter reading talks in detail about the philosophy and content of
a market research report. A proposal is, essentially, just an expression of what
the report will be once the study is completed.
○ The introductory chapters (Vol. 1) help explain how to develop a good research
question.
○ Many other chapters deal explicitly with creating surveys, data collection forms,
sampling, etc.
Class videos & lectures
○ The class is designed around the concept of teaching someone how to complete
a market research project start to finish. Thus, a fair question to ask yourself
during every video & lecture is: “how does this knowledge improve my ability to
conduct a market research project?”
Support material on course website
○ In the course website, you will find readings, templates, and other material I have
made specifically for you to utilize while working on different components of this
project. Use them!
The Internet
○ I expect you adopt some principles of an autodidact. We live in an era of
unparalleled access to brilliant, thoughtful, clear, helpful, free digital resources.
There are many that can help with designing a market research proposal. The
SDSU Library, Google Scholar, and other digital sources (even the ones I don’t
explicitly point you to!) are available to you!
Page 3 of 28
Format of your Market Research PROPOSAL
It is recommended you follow this format for your project. In the real world (or possibly in the
case of your project), research proposals and reports don’t always follow this exact format, but
all of this content listed in this template will be present in any high quality report. When
submitting your proposal, make sure you have all the headers and subheaders present, but for
the sections that can’t be completed yet simply write “Pending Final Report” in those sections.
The Appendix of this document has extensive comments about what should go in each section
and what high quality content looks like.
LEGEND:
RED SECTIONS
These are sections you should have completed as part of Project 1. When
submitting Project 1, these sections should be COMPLETED, as in, “ready to go”
BLUE SECTIONS
These are brief comments I added to help you understand what belongs in a
section. Again, the Appendix of this document is where detailed instructions can
be found!
RESEARCH PROPOSAL TEMPLATE:
1. TITLE PAGE [single page]
[Title of Your Research Proposal; Student Name & REDID; Semester, Year, Class Time;
Date of Submission]
[Note: Please focus your time & energy on high quality content WITHIN the report.
Sometimes students seem to spend a long time making a fantastic, professional Title
Page, but neglect to place energy on the actual project proposal! Look, we’re all
marketers here, so we can all appreciate slick branding… but trust me when I say your
energies are best spent on the *actual* quality of your research proposal!]
TITLE OF YOUR RESEARCH PROPOSAL
2. INTRODUCTION - [should be about 1 to 1.5 pages double-spaced]
a. Motivation for Project & Problem Definition
[See this TIP]
[See this TIP]
[See this TIP]
b. Background Information [precise placement of this section may vary in
introduction depending on narrative needs]
c. Research Question(s) [Regardless of how you structure the Introduction, make
sure your Research Question(s) section is clear and distinct for the reader. Be
Page 4 of 28
100% clear about what question you’re proposing to answer with your research!]
[See this TIP]
3. RESEARCH METHODS - [not including any tables or figures, should be about 1 to 1.5
pages double spaced]
a. Research Design
[this part is about 0.5 to 1 page double-spaced, it acts as a “summary overview”
of how you propose to conduct the actual research, while the next three sections
get into more detail on specific parts of the research design]
b. Operational Definitions
[usually best to organize into a 2-column table, the term to be defined in the first
column, the definition description in the second column… as another example
where both the conceptual and operational definitions are provided (a 3-column
approach), see Appendix A in the B
aker, Kumar, Donthu (2016) article.]
[See this TIP]
c. Data Collection Instruments (questionnaire, experiment, interview forms, etc.)*
*The full instruments are included in Appendix. In this section, you provide a
brief, written overview of the scales and measures in your study
[See this TIP]
[See this TIP]
d. Data Collection Methods & Sampling Strategy
[describes details related to acquiring study participants. The study population,
sampling frame, sampling approach. How they will be approached, how they will
be qualified/verified, how many completed responses to collect.]
[See this TIP]
4. ANALYSIS STRATEGY [not including any tables or figures, should be about 0.5 pages
double spaced]
a. Proposed Analysis Strategy
[*This is only lightly developed in the proposal stage (not to mention we have yet
to cover much of anything about data analysis yet (!!!) … So, just a few
sentences describing how you plan to analyze the data generated by your study,
mock charts & figures support it]
APPENDIX
5. DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS
[Check carefully my requirements for this section, you will present to me your proposed
Qualtrics survey, while keeping in mind the constraints and requirements I have]
a. Exported Qualtrics Survey
[be sure to see the assignment section “P
roject Rules for Your Questionnaire
Design”] This version of the data collection instrument allows people to inspect
your underlying coding, programming logic, etc.
[See this TIP]
b. Qualtrics Survey Screenshots
[these are the Qualtrics survey screenshots; that is, they show how the Qualtrics
Page 5 of 28
study will look from the perspective of someone participating in the study]
[see this TIP]
6. REFERENCES / BIBLIOGRAPHY
[* The Market Research Proposal will include most, but not necessarily all, of the
citations used in the final report]
a. Citations and References (APA style)
Page 6 of 28
Project Rules for Your Questionnaire Design
To manage the scope of this initial proposal, there are some restrictions and rules you need to
follow when designing your questionnaire. Your questionnaire will be evaluated for the overall
quality and appropriateness of the questionnaire items / survey design, and will also have to
abide by the following requirements.
Rule 1: Your submitted questionnaire will be between at least FIVE and no more than TEN
questionnaire items.
● If you have skip logic / display logic for some of your questionnaire items, you may not
have greater than 10 total questionnaire items
● Screening / qualification questions *do* count toward this number
● “Check all that apply”-style questionnaire items count as a single question.
● “Matrix”-style questionnaire items count for X questions, where X is the number of
questions in your matrix.
Rule 2: Do not include any questionnaire items that are measuring demographic /
socioeconomic factors. You can presume that standard demographic / socioeconomic
questionnaire items will be included in the final class questionnaire.
● Even if your research question requires a demographic question
(Example: “Do California residents support more plastic ban policies than people from
other U.S. states?” ← clearly a “State of Residence” question would need to be included
in your survey), don’t include any of these questionnaire items in your final submission
for Project 1.
● Instead, add something like “Household income measured here” as a placeholder in your
Qualtrics questionnaire (and it won’t count toward your max). This is fine!
● Any questions like this DO NOT count toward Rule 1.
Rule 3: The overall design of your questionnaire (cover letter, order of the questionnaire,
transition statements, instructions to the respondent, images/videos that might be part of the
questionnaire, etc.) should be thoughtfully included in your design. That is, a good survey
design is good TOTAL design, not just properly-worded questionnaire items!
Rule 4: Every. Single. Question. Matters. The questionnaire items you include in your survey
design should directly support addressing your research question(s). A perfectly designed
questionnaire item that doesn’t support addressing the research question is the same thing as
having a terribly designed questionnaire item.
● If “I just thought it might be interesting to find out if…” is your justification for a
questionnaire item, that questionnaire item doesn't belong.
Page 7 of 28
PROJECT 1: STUDENT HELP & FAQ SECTION
Tip 1: Identifying an Interesting and
Appropriate Research Question
Students often have a difficult time identifying appropriate research questions for their
semester-long project. Don’t worry! It is often difficult to come up with appropriate research
questions.
I will briefly explain some of the ways research questions are identified. I will also provide a few
examples of previous student research projects.
RQ Source #1: A Business Problem Triggers the Need for
Marketing Research
In the real world, this is the most common trigger for marketing research, but it is less common
as a MKTG470 marketing research project since many students are not presently working for a
business / have the necessary business experience to identify a relevant business problem.
Previous Student Examples:
Grub Hub: A previous student worked for the San Diego branch of the food delivery service,
Grub Hub. One of the ways this company acquires new customers is by providing the first food
delivery for free. While this is great to acquire new customers, it also ensures customer
retention will be a challenge once it comes time to ask them to actually pay for the service. This
is a business problem. However, Grub Hub did not know the type of customer who was most
likely to use the service more than once. This is a research problem because information can
be used to answer this question. Grub Hub wanted to know which type of customer is most
likely to become a recurring user of the service, so the research question became: “What are
the demographic characteristics of repeat Grub Hub users? What features and benefits do
Grub Hub users value the most?”
Page 8 of 28
Aztec Shops Does Nails?: Aztec Shops is planning on adding a nail salon in an underutilized
corner of the SDSU bookstore. Aztec Shops did not know what price point for nail salon
services were likely to maximize the profitability of the nail salon. This is a business problem.
Aztec shops would like to know the maximum price students would be willing to pay for nail
salon services if the objective is to maximize profitability. This is a research problem because
information can be used to answer this question. So, the research question became “Among
students who might use nail salon services on campus, what is the estimated number of
students who will pay for each service at a relatively low, typical, and premium pricing model?”
RQ Source #2: Identify an Interesting Previous Study to Modify
and Replicate
An excellent (and underused!) way to identify an interesting research topic is to REPLICATE &
EXTEND a research study that was already conducted by other marketing researchers. A
REPLICATION study means that you intend to perfectly replicate the previous research to see if
the results still hold up. A REPLICATION & EXTENSION, on the other hand, is where you try to
capture the “essence” of the original research, but then you put your own unique spin on the
research. This might be by slightly changing up how the research is conducted, who is studied,
the context of the study, etc. In the following section, I provide a few examples of
REPLICATION & EXTENSION studies.
Hypothetical Examples:
What kind of products do people buy who are most receptive to pseudo-profound
bullshit? A student team read the article “On the reception and detection of pseudo-profound
bullshuit,” by Pennycook et al. in a 2015 issue of Judgement and Decision Making. In the study,
the researchers presented people with “pseudo-profound bullshit” (an academic term!)
statements and asked them to rate how profound the statements were. Then, the authors also
took a series of personality measures and evaluated which personality traits were most strongly
associated with people believing in bullshit statements. The student team thought this was very
interesting, but they instead wanted to know what kinds of products and marketplace beliefs do
believers of “psuedo-profound bullshit” have? So, the students replicated the study, but instead
of measuring personality traits, they had people answer questions about the kinds of products
they purchase (organic foods, tarot card readings, playing the lottery, participating in online
personality quizzes, watching fantasy movies, reading comic books, etc.).
Does Holding a Cat Make Men Seem Less Attractive? The journal Animals published a
experimental study that investigated how heterosexual women reacted to photographs of men
under conditions of “hold a cat” and “not holding a cat” (seriously, this study was covered by
Page 9 of 28
CNN and other news outlets!). The results suggested that, on average, hetereosexual women
found men “less dateable” when holding a cat. This study could be replicated among different
populations and situations (do men who are attracted to men respond in a similar pattern as the
results here? what if the men had been holding a small dog? And so on), or, could even be
extended to cover more marketing-specific applications (imagine a would-be employer
screening someone’s social media accounts prior to making a hiring decision for a sales
position, would the would-be employer evaluate the person differently whether or not the
pictures included photos with a cat?).
Do people really discriminate against atheists? A student team was very interested by the
research conducted by the company Atheist Shoes, “USPS Discrimination Against Atheism?”
The student team decided to modify the Atheist Shoe study in a way that could be performed by
MKTG470 students, but the core experiment was still designed to test the question “On
average, does the perception of a product as ‘atheist’ cause people to dislike it?”
Does Artistic Flair Influence the Value of Coffee Beverages? A student team read the article
“Latte Art Influences Both the Expected and Rated Value of Milk-Based Coffee Drinks” by Van
Doorn et al. in the 2015 issue of the Journal of Sensory Studies. Inspired by the research
design and the findings, the students wondered if these results might also apply in the context of
craft beer and mixed alcoholic beverages. The student team decided to test the effect of
different glassware on the perceived and actual value of beer / mixed drinks.
What ethical motives do people have for purchasing organic foods? A student team read
the article “Ethical values and motives driving organic food choice,” by Honkanen et al. in a
2006 issue of the Journal of Consumer Behaviour. This study samples 1,283 Norwegian adults
and studied how ethical motives for buying organic foods were connected to actual intentions to
purchase organic foods. The student team was interested whether these factors still played a
similar role among US young adults (a very different group), and wanted to investigate if there
were other social & health motives (aside from just ethical motives) that also explained organic
food consumption.
RQ Source #3: A Recent News Article or Event Inspires a
Research Project
This is a common trigger that inspires a marketing research project. Interesting, “news worthy”
events often lead students to think about the issue in a way that is relevant to marketing
practice. Further, students often realize that news articles will suggest that something may be
true (anecdotal evidence), but a proper market research study is required to actually investigate
Examples:
Page 10 of 28
How do Consumers Evaluate Brands Based on the Different Ways Brands Have
Responded to the Black Lives Matter Movement? The response of corporate brands to the
2020 surge of the Black Lives Matter movement has been substantial. However, the tenor,
type, and intensity of responses has varied substantially. Consumer reaction to BLM-motivated
brand behaviors has varied as well. For consumers who personally align strongly with the
BLM-movement, what sort of brand responses engender skepticism, suspicion, and cynicism?
What brand responses engender respect, appreciation, identification, and approval? How do
consumers make these judgments? Do these judgments correspond to meaningful changes in
consumer behavior?
How do Conspiracy Theorists Engage with Global Brands? Humans have long believed in
conspiracy theories. Still, under the backdrop of cheap and easy access to democratized
communication platforms (message boards, reddit, Twitter, YouTube) and communication tools
(video/audio editing software), web-based technology has facilitated the ability for like-minded
conspiracy theorists to create durable communities unbounded by geographical constraints. As
marketers, the ways in which brands may find themselves centered or indirectly connected to
conspiracy theories can be unexpected (Monster Energy, Proctor&Gamble, Wayfair, as other
examples). When presented with conspiracy theories centered around brands, do consumers
of the brand alter their assessment or behaviors toward a brand?
How do Different Consumers Perceive and Evaluate Brands’ Marketing Behaviors During
an Environmental Crisis? What are the Consequences to Brands? Consider the 2017
Hurricane Harvey and the devastation it has brought to Houston, Texas. Many companies and
brands have reacted to this crisis in a variety of ways. Sometimes it is ambiguous if these
behaviors are benevolent, benign, or manipulative. Consider this story about Best “price
gouging” consumers for cases of water. Best Buy sold the cases of water at the retail price they
typically sell each individual bottle of water. Is this price gouging? Is this unfair? Is this ethical?
Is it moral? Should the brand be punished? The answer to these questions and others likely
depend on the belief and worldview of different consumers and the manner in which Best Buy
frames and explains their behaviors. A marketing research study could explore this topic in
further detail.
Does the Acquisition of Craft Breweries by “Big Beer” threaten their credibility,
authenticity, and sales among hardcore craft beer drinkers? When Ballast Point was sold
to Constellation Brands for over $1 Billion, a lot of people paid close attention, especially the
enthusiastic craft beer drinkers of San Diego. Other recent acquisitions of notable craft
breweries (Lagunitas and Saint Archer) are emblematic of the new wave of acquisitions and
mergers in the craft beer scene. On the other hand, breweries like Stone Brewing are
determined to stay independent and not “sell out” to “Big Beer.” An interesting marketing
question emerges from this new activity in the marketplace – since some craft beer drinkers
embraced the counter-to-mainstream nature of craft breweries, does this new set of mergers
and acquisitions threaten the brand equity of some of these well-established craft breweries?
Page 11 of 28
RQ Source #4: A Student Observes a Market Problem from the
Perspective of the Consumer
Marketing research can also be motivated by observing problems from the perspective of the
consumer. Since all MKTG470 students are, indeed, consumers, this is a typical point from
where a research project is inspired.
Previous Student Examples:
What is a “Party School”? Is San Diego a “Party School”? If so, does this perception
Affect how Graduates of SDSU are Perceived by Future Employers? A student team
perceived that SDSU was known as a “party school,” although upon closer reflection they
realized the term “party school” is ambiguous and required closer investigation. Then, the
students wondered if career prospects for SDSU graduates might be somewhat hampered by
employers, managers, and HR managers who review SDSU graduates. The students wanted
to investigate whether or not there was evidence of this perception.
What are the tradeoffs, if any, between employment and timely graduation for students?
What sort of strategic choices do students make? The CSU system aims to have a large
majority of students graduate in a “timely” fashion by 2025 (see this link). However, to date, little
work has considered the possibility that some students may choose to strategically delay their
graduation in order to improve their employment prospects. Who are these students? How big
of a trade-off are they willing to make? What other factors influence their decision making?
Page 12 of 28
Tip 2: Identifying a Feasible Marketing Research
Question
A “good” marketing research question should be feasible to investigate within the time and
resources available. For example, a research question like “Over the last decade, which forms
of earned, owned, and paid digital marketing have had the highest and lowest ROI for consumer
brands across 18 different product categories?” is truly fascinating, important, and would be of
great interest to thousands of marketers -- and there is absolutely no way you could possibly
address it within a single introductory marketing research class!
In the spirit of “feasibility,” here are some tips to make sure your project is more likely to be
successful within this course:
Suggestion 1: Your Research Question calls for cross-sectional,
not longitudinal, analysis.
A cross-sectional study means you intend to analyze are data at a single point in time, while a
longitudinal study means you intend to analyze data and compare it across different time points.
Longitudinal studies are often very powerful, because they allow marketers to observe change
and trends. However, given our compact timeline, longitudinal studies can be tricky to pull off
unless you intend to use secondary research that someone else already did as the basis for
time comparison.
Suggestion 2: Your Research Question has either: a (1) large
qualifying population of interest and/or is (2) easy to identify the
population.
Rare, hard to identify consumers take more time and money to sample. You have no money
and little time! Thus, a research question that calls for studying only “Pokemon Go players who
have achieved level 38 or above” is going to be much more challenging than “Anyone who plays
or is aware of Pokemon Go”.
Page 13 of 28
Suggestion 3: Your Research Question has a population of
interest that is not limited to only studying SDSU students.
While some student Marketing Research projects require that only SDSU students be the
population of interest, I encourage you to not limit yourself to this population definition if you
don’t have to. SDSU Students get swarmed with requests to participate in other student
research projects; this has the effect of lowering response rates and diminishing response
quality.
As a general rule, studies that qualify just about anyone who is 18+ (such as “Adults 18+ who
are considering taking a vacation in the next year” or “Adults 18+ who have at least one social
media account”) work well in this course.
Suggestion 4: Your Research Question can be investigated online
or through a brief in-person survey / experiment.
Telephone and door-to-door studies can be very high quality, but they are expensive and time
consuming. Online studies are more practical for this class, or, alternatively, brief in-person
studies where you recruit people using intercept-style strategies.*
* When not in a global pandemic.
Page 14 of 28
Tip 3: Defining / Motivating the Business & Research
Problem
You’re about to propose a massive research undertaking. In most situations (admittedly, not for
this class!), that means you need to convince your reader (your boss / your potential client) that
you deserve to be hired, given grant money, etc.
A powerful way to justify your research proposal is to make a clear, convincing case to your
audience that there is a problem worth addressing with research.
Some things to keep in mind while developing this section (these are not subheaders, but rather
topics to address as you craft this portion of the report):
●
●
●
●
Know your audience and speak to them. Make sure you’re clear who you’re tailoring
your research proposal to. A marketing manager is different from the general public,
which is different from an academic audience which is different from an industry trade
association, etc. You’ll find it to be much easier to develop this section when you keep
your audience in mind. Since this is a student project, keep in mind that I’m always one
of the audience members, and you need to convince me that you know who the other
key audiences are for your research.
Assume your audience is not as familiar with the issue as you are. Let’s say you
want to do a study about consumer perceptions about GMO labeling on groceries. Don’t
presume your audience knows what “GMO” means (even if they *think* they know, it’s
probably different than your intention), and don’t presume they are familiar with the rules
/ regulations / options around GMO food labeling.
Provide valid, trustworthy evidence for backing up your claims. I mean clear,
objective, empirical information that illustrates the nature of the problem. Personal
anecdotes are extremely poor pieces of evidence. News articles loosely bringing up the
issue in an anecdotal fashion are also poor pieces of evidence. Multiple sources from
government reports, previous academic / industry research, and/or thoroughly in-depth
industry news articles are good examples of evidence. If your project is a consulting
project for a specific business, then clear, specific, explanations that directly explain the
issue in the terms of the business would also be appropriate. A working rule can be “cite
it or don’t say it. ”
Help your reader understand the magnitude / significance of the problem.
Presume your reader doesn’t understand why the issue you’re talking about is an
important issue worth solving. Provide clear evidence that demonstrates why this issue
is a problem for a particular: business, industry, consumer, public policymaker, or some
other potential stakeholder group. At the end of reading this section, the reader should
be able to answer: “This research problem is worth solving because…”
Page 15 of 28
Tip 4: Writing Clear Marketing Research Questions /
Objectives
In the previous appendix sections, I have already explained some of the features of a “good”
Research Question. In addition to the previous comments, a good Research Question has the
following properties:
❏ Focused and Specific. The reader has a clear understanding of what you’re really
attempting to answer. A clear research question usually makes it easy for a moderately
competent reader to understand what specific variables need to be measured.
❏ It is an Empirical Question. While all business problems are requests for normative
advice (what “should” we do? “Should we stop manufacturing iPods?”), marketing
research can only directly answer objective issues (what “is”. Ex: “iPod sales dropped to
million in 2014 from a high of 54.8 million six years previous.”).
❏ The Answer isn’t Already Known. If research superior to yours has already answered
a question well, then your RQ isn’t particularly important. For example, “What are U.S.
adults’ views on the safety of genetically modified foods?” would seem to be an
appropriate research question, but Pew Research (among other sources) have already
addressed this question with much more precision than you can. SOLUTION: usually
narrowing your research question can resolve this problem. For example, to my
knowledge, no one has ever investigated “Would SDSU students pay more or less for on
campus lunch if all of the ingredients were certified GMO-free?”.
❏ Sub-Research Questions are Used (when appropriate). In many instances,
marketing research becomes interesting when we compare between different groups of
consumers. For example, consider the previous example: “Would SDSU students pay
more or less for on campus lunch if all of the ingredients were certified GMO-free?”. A
sub-research question might be: “Does this vary between students who live on and off
campus?” or “Does this vary between students who eat frequently vs. infrequently on
campus?”
EXAMPLES: Here are some examples of appropriate Research Questions that relate to the
craft brewing industry in San Diego:
●
●
What % of legal drinking age SDSU students consider themselves drinkers of craft beer?
Does this % vary by gender, whether the student was born in San Diego county, or other
demographics?
Do SDSU student craft beer drinkers typically drink more or less alcohol than SDSU
students who do not identify as craft beer drinkers? Do they typically spend more or less
money on craft beer, beer, and alcohol in general?
Page 16 of 28
●
●
●
●
●
Which San Diego county breweries are SDSU students aware of? How does this
awareness level compare to the awareness of other popular national breweries?
What are the most imbibed San Diego brewery beers among SDSU students? How
does this compare to other popular beers?
Do SDSU craft beer enthusiasts have different preferences for bars, restaurants, and
other drinking establishments when compared to SDSU non-craft beer enthusiasts?
Are SDSU students who drink beer willing to pay more, or have a preference for, craft
beer produced by independently owned breweries?
How have SDSU interactions with San Diego craft beer and breweries changed as a
result of Covid-19?
Research Question OR Research Objective? In most instances, the differences between a
Research QUESTION and a Research OBJECTIVE are pretty trivial. One is framed as a
question to be answered while the other is a stated intention of the work to be done. Let me
illustrate how they are usually interchangeable.
Research QUESTION format
Research OBJECTIVE format
What % of legal drinking age SDSU
students consider themselves drinkers
of craft beer? Does this % vary by
gender, whether the student was born
in San Diego county, or other
demographics?
→
This study will assess the percentage of
drinking age SDSU students who consider
themselves craft beer drinkers. Further, this
study will assess if this percentage varies
across several demographic variables.
What are the most imbibed San Diego
brewery beers among SDSU students?
How does this compare to other
popular breweries?
→
This study will determine which San Diego
breweries are the most consumed among
SDSU students. The consumption of SD
breweries will be compared to other popular
national breweries as well.
Are SDSU students who drink beer
willing to pay more, or have a
preference for, craft beer produced by
independently owned breweries?
→
We will investigate whether SDSU students
have (1) a preference and (2) a willingness to
pay a premium for craft beer from
independently-owned breweries.
Page 17 of 28
Tip 5: MRP Tips - Providing High Quality Operational
Definitions
What is an “operational definition”? Surprisingly (and quite ironic in an Alanis Morissette sort of
way), there are actually several definitions (here and here, for example).
I’ll provide my own definition of operational definition here:
An operational definition is used to define a conceptual term in such
a way that it is: (a) clear about how the term is being used in the
research study and (b) how the conceptual t
erm is to be measured in
the study.
You must provide operational definitions for all* of the abstract concepts you intend to
measure in your study.
*In some instances, the operational definition within marketing is either so uniformly understood,
or the operational definition becomes so readily apparent once the measurement instrument is
shown it isn’t necessary to provide a formal definition. I’ll give a few examples of what I mean
by that. If I were you, I’d assume that you need to provide operational definitions.
Page 18 of 28
What makes for a “high quality” operational definition?
A high quality operational definition has several properties. In practice, students often overlook
many of these features when providing operational definitions.
Operational
Definition
Feature
Comments
Accepted /
Consistent
within the
Broader
Practice of
Marketing
Other experts in the field (marketing in general, business, or the industry) share
the view that the operational definition is consistent with the concept to be
measured. This usually means finding academic research / high quality industry
research that has also used the same operational definition. For example, an
operational definition of “customer satisfaction” should probably be something
closely related to the degree to which customer experience matched their
expectations, as that is the widely accepted definition, even if there is some small
variation within marketing about the precise definition of “customer satisfaction”.
Aligned with the
Conceptual
Definition
Related to the “Accepted within Practice” feature. That is, the way to measure
the concept is consistent with the idea of the concept itself. As a silly example, if
I said “The operational definition of household income is how many Facebook
friends someone has,” it is quite apparent that the way I’m measuring HH Income
is ridiculously far afield from what the concept is! If I said “The operational
definition of household income is how much income household members earn
from full-time employment,” it would be closer to an appropriate definition of HH
Income, but it would still be overlooking all the types of income people earn n
ways beside full-time employment (part-time, hobby businesses, pensions, etc.)
Clarity in
Measurement
Procedure
Some operational definitions strongly guide how a concept will be measured but
fall short of explaining exactly how the concept is to be measured. This can be
okay, but the full measurement and scoring procedure allows for more precision.
Good example: “Customer satisfaction is defined as the degree to which a
customer’s experience with the coffee shop matched their expectations of the
experience. Customer satisfaction was measured by taking the average score on
a two question satisfaction scale. This scale was used by the coffee shop for the
last 5 years and was also used in the present study.”
Objectivity in
Measurement
While many concepts measured in marketing are subjective (like attitudes toward
brands), the measurement and scoring procedure for those subjective concepts
should be performed as objectively as possible.
BAD: “People who seemed to be happy when shown a picture of Adidas were
scored as having a positive attitude toward Adidas” would be a highly subjective
scoring procedure (what does “seeming to be happy” mean?)
MUCH BETTER: “People who, on average, maintained an Affectiva >=10
valence score during the first three seconds of being exposed to a picture of
Adidas were scored as having a positive attitude.” Notice how this sets an
objective standard to measure the subjective property.
Page 19 of 28
Some examples of operational definitions in marketing studies:
Concept
Operational Definition
Comments / Critique
Current
Customer
“A customer who has purchased
at least one product from
Business Z within the last 6
months.”
“Current” is clearly the problem here. In
this case, individual businesses,
sometimes industries, have clear
thresholds for what constitutes ‘current’ “,
so I’d want to make sure this definition
aligns with that.
Compulsive
Buying
“Compulsive buying is defined
as a consumer’s tendency to be
preoccupied with buying that is
revealed through repetitive
buying and a lack of impulse
control over buying (Ridgway et
al. 2008). It is measured by
taking the average score of six
survey questions developed by
Ridgway et al. 2008, each of
which is on a 7-point intensity
continuum.”
Whew, “compulsive buying “ is a complex,
multi-dimensional concept, so it was
important to clearly define the concept and
lay out how it was going to be
operationally measured (and relying on
previous academic work!).
HH Income
“Someone’s reported household
annual income.”
This is a bit lazy for an operational
definition (what kind of survey question do
they respond to? What type of scale?).
While this is no doubt a problem, it's a bit
less troublesome here since the concept
of HH income is so ubiquitous in marketing
that any practitioner should have a sense
of the measurement technique.
Page 20 of 28
Tip 6: Data Collection Instruments and Code Books
Before programming a survey, questionnaire, or experiment into a data collection software
platform (like Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, etc.) it is important you build a proper DRAFT of your
data collection instrument using a basic word processing program (Word, Google Docs). To be
clear this is precisely what I do as well, it really helps! This is not something you turn in,
but rather a tool you make for yourself to make your survey programming go smoothly.
This DRAFT should have the following properties:
1. Exact questionnaire item wording the respondent sees
2. All possible response values the respondent sees
3. A variable name for each variable that will be tracked by the survey system (in the
example below, these are in bracket in [BLUE] )
4. Response value codes that will be stored in the survey system (in the example, these
are in brackets in [RED] )
5. Write out any conditional logic for showing / hiding / reordering questions that must
eventually be programmed into the survey system (in the example, these are in GREEN)
6. Comments, notes, and other details that may need to be made about programming the
survey (italicized, in ORANGE).
7. Cover letter, transition statements, additional instructions for respondents, images /
videos that are going to be used as part of the stimuli, etc.
8. The Full Survey Flow (usually designed in something like Powerpoint).
EXAMPLE:
How much do you agree or disagree with the following statements:
[FPack_1] I think fanny packs are a very versatile piece of clothing.
[FPack_2] I think fanny packs are rather fashionable.
[FPack_3] People who wear fanny packs are pretty cool.
Each item measured using the scale:
[1] Strongly Disagree
[2] Disagree
[3] Neither Agree nor Disagree
[4] Agree
[5] Strongly Agree
[-999] I don’t know / Doesn’t Apply
If respondent said “Agree” or “Strongly Agree” to FPAck_1, FPack2, and FPack3 show the
next survey questions, otherwise skip the [Retail_Price] and [Purch_Price] questions.
Page 21 of 28
Below is a picture of a fanny pack you might see for sale in an online clothing store. Imagine
you saw this fanny pack on sale at its regular retail price.
The respondent is randomly shown one of two possible images of fanny packs, width of each
image is set to 600 pixels:
Image 1:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1XQlWIkHlP8jFbr5aZPtnYNlPGDgSvbbP/view?usp=sharing
Image 2:
https://drive.google.com/file/d/1F2GOtcQI2fSwwcaP-9cb5ALnWwQb-aiH/view?usp=sharing
[Retail_Price] Using your best guess, what price, in US dollars, do you think this product is
being sold for? [Answer is open-ended box with numbers-only validation]
[Purch_Price] In your personal opinion, what is the maximum price you would pay for this
product while still considering it to be a good deal?
[Answer is open-ended box with numbers-only validation]
Page 22 of 28
Tip 7: Making Sure Your Qualtrics Survey Instrument
is Ready to Go
Here is a checklist of items I recommend you check before you think your survey really is
complete:
GENERAL SURVEY ISSUES COMMONLY OVERLOOKED BY
STUDENTS:
❏ Does your survey have a short, appropriate, clear cover letter (that is, introduction)?
❏ Make sure you have useful, constructive transition statements (also see your class
notes) between topics and sections.
❏ For many questions, “I don’t know” or “Not sure” or “No opinion” (or some other similar
style of response) is entirely reasonable for your survey question. Did you give people
the option to answer that way?
QUALTRICS ISSUES TO CHECK:
❏ CODING: Does every single single question in the Qualtrics survey have an appropriate
custom name and, if appropriate, appropriate coding scheme? This feels like excessive
work now, but it will save you an immense amount of heartache later when it is time to
conduct your analysis!
For example, in this question above I decided to:
❏ Rename it from the default “Q2” to “BFast”
❏ Switched the code value for “No” to 0 (by default Qualtrics had it as “2”)
❏ Switched the code value for “I don’t know / Can’t remember” to -999 (by default
Qualtrics had it as “3”)
❏ Changed the Variable Naming to “IDK”. This pink section is how the information
is stored inside the dataset (SPSS, Excel, etc.), and later when I’m conducting
Page 23 of 28
analysis I determined that the short phrase “IDK” is all I will need to see to
remember what the actual option was.
❏ VALIDATION: Do questions have VALIDATION if they need it? The most common
reasons you need Qualtrics Validation is:
❏ Someone must answer the question in order to proceed (such as a screening
question).
❏ It is a question so important to your study you really can’t allow someone to skip
it (you’d rather have them quit the entire survey rather than just skip one
question).
❏ It is an open-ended or write-in question and you want to make sure only proper
values are written in. For example, if you request a 5-digit zip code, you can
make it validate so that 5 numerical characters must be written.
❏ You have a Loop & Merge or Carry-Forward, or Text Piping style question in your
survey and they will only work correctly if people provide an answer to a previous
survey question.
❏ LOOK & FEEL:
❏ You adjusted the LOOK & FEEL. Themes like “Qualtrics 2017” are clean and
professional, but the SDSU theme adds more credibility to your study.
❏ You properly set the SURVEY OPTIONS. For example:
❏ Should your survey have a Back Button? Some should, some shouldn’t.
❏ Do you want to set a Survey Expiration? (meaning it is not accessible
after a certain time)
❏ I recommend you set Partial Completions to Record after 4 hours
❏ DISPLAY, SKIP, AND FLOW: Did you TEST the survey to ensure that all of the
following are ALWAYS working properly? Check all of the following by performing
multiple checks in Survey Preview mode:
❏ If you have Randomization anywhere in your survey, does it always work
correctly?
❏ If you have Display Logic or Skip Logic, does it always work correctly?
❏ If your Survey Flow requires that different respondents are shown different
portions of the survey, have you ensured it is programmed correctly? (“Branch
Logic”)
❏ Did you check to see if the questions look appropriate on both PHONE and
LAPTOPS?
Page 24 of 28
Tip 8 - Explaining Your Data Collection Methods &
Sampling Technique Clearly & Effectively
At a high level, your market research proposal section concerned with sampling and data
collection should convince the reader of the following.
❏ You have a clear understanding of WHO qualifies into your sample and WHY that group
is the appropriate group to sample
❏ You have a clear understanding of HOW you will actually conduct the sampling, and you
have CLEAR PROTOCOLS in place to help ensure the sample is more likely to be
representative of the population (re: you have plans to mitigate against common forms of
sampling error)
❏ Your sampling plan is feasible to be conducted using the time, money, and resources
you have available
❏ You have used appropriate methods to determine the optimal sample size required for
your study
To achieve those items above, with regard to your Data Collection Method section, you will
want to make sure this section addresses the following:
❏ You clearly explain the method you chose to collect data, and you explain why it is
appropriate for your study (anonymous online survey, face-to-face surveys with a tablet,
etc.).
❏ You have considered some of the likely sources of nonsampling error that might occur
because of your data collection method.
To achieve those items above, with regard to your Sampling Technique section, you will want
to make sure this section addresses the following:
❏ Your population is clearly defined.
❏ Your sampling frame is clearly identified.
❏ Your procedure for drawing from the sampling frame is explained.
❏ You provide clear, appropriate evidence of how you arrived to your optimal sample size
calculation.
❏ You have made reasonable assumptions to determine the Total Sampling Elements
necessary to reach the optimal sample size.
❏ You have a plan in place for how you will validate the quality of your sample after data
collection is complete (re: is there some way you could compare the demographics of
your sample against the known population characteristics of your whole population?).
For example, you could use this SDSU Analytic Studies & Institutional Research table to
Page 25 of 28
determine the population of SDSU students by class level and age… then compare your
sample to it (assuming your population of interest was SDSU students).
Page 26 of 28
Tip 9: Presenting your Qualtrics Survey in Your
Appendix
In the GENERAL APPENDIX - DATA COLLECTION INSTRUMENTS section:
❏ Include an Appendix Subsection here called “Exported Qualtrics Survey”. First, I want
you to export a Word document version of your survey using the following settings (in
Qualtrics, found under TOOLS --> Import/Export --> Export Survey
to Word…). I need this because it shows me your programming, code names, and
value codes. It DOESN’T export images and formatting, don’t stress about that!
❏ Include an Appendix Subsection here called “Qualtrics Survey Screenshots”
❏ In your appendix, take screenshots that show how your survey looks from the
perspective of a respondent taking your study. If you have a short and long-form
of your survey (due to skip logic or survey flow decisions), show me the version
that is the longest version of your study. If you have really complex survey flow
logic, contact me for how to best present your screenshots.
Page 27 of 28
GRADING RUBRIC PROJECT 1
(click here)
Note that doing “acceptable” work for the entire project will maintain the “baseline” grade of
75/100 (which corresponds to the “acceptable work” standard outlined in the SDSU Policy File
about student grades). You will have to exceed the acceptable work standard (see the rubric for
examples) to earn a “B” or “A” on this project.
Page 28 of 28
Purchase answer to see full
attachment