Week 11 EOC: Forced Choice

Lana Cunningham- I loved you newsletter, but it could have had more information on the research itself.

Ashley Tomlin- Missing what the hypothesis was and needed clearer graphing.

Coral McGarvey-A little confused on what you hypothesis was, but overall it was very informative.

Elizabeth Manning- I felt very informed, I knew what the hypothesis was right away and got to see how your results came out. I even liked that you involved the kids in your survey, it was really smart.

Roland Moore- Not sure what the hypothesis was and had a bit of errors.

Cristin Wacaser- Needs graphs and I didn’t know what your hypothesis was.

Market Research Final

Week 10 Eoc: using market research to make money

How to utilize this class in the real world; the big question that is being asked for marketing research. I would have to say that there are many ways to utilizing what we learned in our Marketing research class and turning it into money. One thing would be to go up to a business, big or small and market your services to them, for a price. Then after marketing yourself, you then start your market research. Define your market research, find out who the customers are, what they want, what they expect from the company and what they would like see change as well. After finding out your target market, Identify sample units, the sample units to what provides the data you want and your research questions determines your sample units. Then you need to start planning and executing your focus group. This will help you identify the objective of your research and define the problem. If your focus groups are intended as exploratory research, specify objective relevant to your research program. The you will need to write a screening questionnaire to identify and recruit participants. Next will need to write a script to guide the sessions and recruit qualified participants. Then choose the site for your focus groups. After the sessions are completed, then you can start analyzing you data that you have collected. One you have analyzed everything and had put them in a research paper with graphs included, and you can go to the business with your results and let them know what you have figured out from you research. If you do everything right and with some patience and TIME, you should be a shoe in for the cash flow from the business that you went up to in the beginning. Good luck and make some money.

Week 8 EOC: Selecting a sample: The eight steps

To choose a sample for your research project, you must be familiar with the sample selection steps that researchers follow. If you skip any of the steps or perform them poorly, your sample is likely to be less representative of the population. Here are the steps:

1.   Decide whether to use a probability or non-probability sampling method.

I will be using a non- probability sample; convenience sample method. I chose this because there are a variety of people, young and old that shop for candy and shop for couture candy.

2.   Define the target population.

The target population at the sugar factory is any who like candy, but love couture candy.

3.   Select a sample frame.

A sample frame is only relevant to probability sample.

4.   Identify the sample unit.

The sample unit is where and who you’re going to set your unit whether it is people, households or businesses. These units provide the data.

5.   Plan the procedure for selecting sample units.

6.   Determine the sample size.

I would like somewhere in between 50 to 100+ samples.

7.   Draw the sample.

I will be sending this serve to the Paris sugar factory and on their website.

8. Conduct the fieldwork.

Week 7 EOC: Survey questions

Sugar Factory, yummy, tasty sweet sugary goods, and a huge hit in Las Vegas, so big that they’ve opened three shops, a restaurant and a nightclub. Their biggest success would have to be the Paris hotel’s sugar factory with their vibrant atmosphere and tasty treats. But what make them more successful than the other two shops? Is it because they’re newer, cleaner, and friendlier? Is it because they have memorable customers and a nice set up? Whatever the reason is they seem to be doing overly well for them. Which is why we would like to make a proposal to see why they’re doing so well? What sets them so different (in a good way) and what sets them apart from the other Sugar Factory’s. I believe that this survey would help bring to our intention on increasing the amount of customers and ultimately increasing the sugar factory sales. I also believe this will help enlighten employees no how to make more sales on their products and bring in more customers to buy more.  So with your assistances and your opinion on your experience here at the sugar factory, it would be greatly important to us and would help our studies and understanding to our company by taking this quick survey. We appreciate your corporation and your patience.

1.      2. Is this the first time you’ve been to sugar factory?

a.      Yes

b.      No

2.      Do you feel you are getting your values worth in our products?

a.      Yes

b.      No

3.      If you answered yes, would you come more if we changed our value?

a.      Yes

b.      No

4.      Do you feel that our employees 

a.      Yes

b.      No

5.      How would you rate our store? Rate from 1 (being messy and disorganized) to 5 (being Clean and organized)

1             2             3          4          5

6.      Do you feel like we have a huge variety of products? Rate from 1 (being not enough product) to 5 (being more then enough)

1          2          3          4          5         

7.      How would you rate a staff? Rate from 1 (being the lowest) to 5 (being the highest)1          2          3          4          5

8.      What would you like us to do for you to recommend us to your friends?________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________

9.      Which sugar Factory location do you feel like is the most convenient for you?                                                              i.      Paris                                                            

ii.      MGM                                                          

iii.      Planet Hollywood

10.  What made you come to the sugar factory?                                                              i.      The product         

ii.      The publicity                                                          

iii.      The convenience                                                           

iv.      The atmosphere

11.  Question #14 and #15 are part of question #10. Please answer the last two questions if it relates to you.

12.  Are you a Nevada resident?

a.      Yes

b.      No, I am from ______________________

13.  If no, would you recommend coming back to the sugar factory?

14.  If yes, do you feel like sugar factory should have a discount for locals?

Research Opportunity

Sugar Factory, yummy, tasty sweet sugary goods, a huge hit in Las Vegas. So big that they’ve opened three shops, a restaurant and a nightclub. Their biggest success would have to be the Paris hotel’s sugar factory with their vibrant atmosphere and tasty treats. But what make them more successful then the other two shops? Is it because they’re newer, cleaner, friendlier? Is it because they have memorable customers and a nice set up? Whatever the reason is they seem to be doing overly well for themselves. Which is why I like to make a proposal to see why they’re doing so well. What sets them so different (in a good way) and what sets them apart from the other Sugar Factory’s. I recently discussed, with a close friend of mine that her store wasn’t doing so well. She works at the MGM Sugar Factory; the first opened Sugar Factory in Las Vegas. I feel as though the MGM Factory has so much potential, but doesn’t make very much traffic. In fact they make a scale of five to none on traffic. But with a simple survey at the Paris Factory, asking their customer what makes them so successful and what makes the customers like the Paris Factory the most. Not only will I be surveying in the Paris Factory, but online. I think the Internet has a huge influence in today businesses. With everything done online and technology being the new biggest thing, it would be a smart move, so I can get more of a tally on how people fell about the Sugar Factory. I would post the survey on Facebook, Sugar Factory’s Facebook, Tumblr and a link on Twitter. A variety of questions will be asked on the categories of customer service, the variety of products and the Factory’s environment and energy. Each category containing four questions each, rating from one to five, one being the lowest (strongly disagree) and five being the highest (strongly agree), something simple and easy. I don’t want to complicate it nor do I want to bore the people who will be taking the test. I think if I did this, this will help not only the MGM get an insight of why the Paris factory is doing so well and how to improve themselves for more customers, but also help Planet Hollywood get more of an insight, along with Paris, to improve something’s on their Factory too. Having friends at every Factory and even friends at the restaurant and promoters at the nightclub, they are willing to let me do this survey at the Paris Sugar Factory, which is privately owned, for my final and to help them improve in their customer service and in anything else that they need help improving on. I think what they like most of this idea was the fact that they get to hear from their customers, without the customers feeling obligated to lie or feel uncomfortable about the feed back on their experience at the Sugar Factory.   

BOC W6: Fixing CSN with Marketing Research

The way the school is run at CSN is horrible. They seem to not keep track of its students and see where they go or disappear in this case. Many students are there to take maybe one or two classes and then just leave, never to be seen again. Others work there butt off to graduate only to be left homeless and broke. While other students just simple transfer to a four year college, like UNLV, were the school keeps more of a track on students. CSN has below then 5 percent on a graduating. Students go to CSN because to learn something, to get a better job and to overall, make more money.CSN needs to have a better track on their students. Having a filing system of some sort and advisors for the students, so that the students feel the need to come to school and graduate and the school can keep on track on where and who their students are. They also need to make a list of credits in a major for students that are needed to get their diploma, keeping them on track with what classes they need to take and how long will it take to graduate from CSN. They also have high school drop outs signing up for classes to get there GED. The school needs to survey the students to see what they actually want to take as their major. They also need to survey the community business to see what exactly is out there to actually major and what type of knowledge do the students need to know on their major in order to perfect and be able to do that job. Overall CSN, even though this is a community college, they need to be more stable and organized, and need to think about more of the students. 

EOC W6: Tax Cuts

After reading an article about the Navadans say income tax cuts should stay, it came to my surprising on how poor the survey was. It was a little bias and a little rude. And when asked whether they wanted the tax cuts to expire or to continue, sixty one percent said "continue" and twenty nine percent said "expire," in the poll taken this week by Mason-Dixon Polling & Research for the Las Vegas Review-Journal and 8NewsNow. Another issue that was stated in front of the congress was that thirty eight percent navadans favor the climate change bill that includes “cap and trade”, while forty six percent

Week 5 EOC: Privacy? Is there such a thing as online privacy now a days?

A Journal investigation finds that one of the fastest-growing businesses on the Internet is the business of spying on consumers.


When on the computer and on the internet do you feel 110 percent secuer? That no one is actually watching you? Well you should be careful in what you do, for an artice in the Wall Street Journal had posted how inside a women's computer was a file that helped gather personal details about her was recently sold. In this file was a code "4c812db292272995e5416a323e79bd37"

BOC W4: Beautiful Stranger TV

Beautifulstranger.tv is a website where you can browse through to see what hot on the street and some times backstage of fashion shows. They travel around to the hottest fashion cities and look for only the most trendiest people straight off the streets. But they just don’t snap a pick and call it a day they actually interview these people and not all about what there wearing either, but about what they're listening to and what their doing to go green, where they eat, shop, hang out and get their goods. Each interview is five minutes long and of course is put on the beautifulstranger.tv website. BeautifulStranger was created by an Editor and Executive Producer whose combined credits over the past 25 years include: Women's Wear Daily, Real Simple, Glamour and W magazines, Showtime Networks, Inc., Nederlander Television and Film among others. The website is fun and full of life from people from around the world in their hottest pieces of clothing talking about themselves and what/who they're wearing. From interviews to street snaps to blog, twitter and Facebook posts to getting to know the creators and the companies employees this website has it all. Taking a look at it and its videos the website has its “raw, edgy and fun, totally unscripted and completely authentic, drives the consumer to shop the looks right off the backs of the best dressed.” Feel to it. Overall this website is a fun and active site to play and browse through. If you ever have the time to check it out you should. It not onliy includes of what the people are wearing but has where you can get the clothes and for what price, or at least similar clothes to what there wearing. A most definite top favorite website of mine now.

http://www.beautifulstranger.tv/

EOC W4: BIG

After watching the movie big there seemed to be a lot of notion towards marketing research. One of the notions was when the kids were in a room testing out toys. This is called a focus group, which is when a company tests out a product on their target consumer and finds out whether the product is perfect or it needs to be worked on to fit their target market. Which brings us to our second notion. The longitude research, when Paul (John Heard’s character) was presenting his “transformer” toy, a toy that a building turns into a building, he had to do a lot of research and over a long period of time. This is known as longitude research, having to dig up research and have countless people fill out surveys and for a long period of time. Lastly, in that exact same scene, after Paul was done presenting, Josh Baskin (Tom Hanks Character) didn’t get what was so great about the toy, that no kid was going to want to play with a toy like that (keep in mind Josh is a 12 year old boy stuck in a grown mans body). So instead Josh suggested that what if we mad a robot that turned into a bug or something… and then from there everyone in the meeting started coming up with some ideas, branching off from Joshes idea. This is called brainstorming when someone comes up with an idea and the others or that same person comes up with 10 other ideas from that single idea that they first came up with. In one little movie that was supposed to be about a kid that wanted to be big (taller), ended up being a grown man and having to face the challenges of the real world, it sure was educational from the principles of Marketing.  

EOC W3: Nine to Five

I recently watched the movie called 9 to 5. This movie is not only a comedy but is a very realistic to what "secretaries want to kill their boss”. The type of processes that they used to find out research from secretaries for the movie was representing a study’s sponsors truthfully and keeping in mind a researcher’s obligation to respondents. Some of the ethical issues that took part in the movie were that, the 3 main women Judy Bernly (played by Jane Fonda), Violet Newstead (played by Lily Tomlin) and Doralee Rhodes (played by Dolly Parton) where being harassed by their boss Franklin Hart Jr.(played by Dabney Coleman) in different ways. Violet was being constantly shut down by her boss, giving her promotion to someone else even though it was clearly meant for her and pretty much using her for her talents, making him sexist towards women. Franklin Hart was sexually harassing Doralee and her coworker were starting to act weird around her because the Franklin would tell everyone that they were sleeping together. As for Judy is a naïve new employee, a recent divorcee whose husband left her for his secretary. Violet trains Judy and introduces her to the department executive, Franklin Hart, Jr. who immediately reveals himself to be arrogant and sexist. After some time the women became enraged and eventually having to kidnap their boss. Resulting the three women changing the office space around, providing things that real woman that works a 9 to 5 jobs wish they had and didn’t have in an real office. Which concluded to a 20 percent growth rate on people showing up to their jobs and actually working hard. Overall this movie was a great learning experience for market research having provided research ethics and a longitude researcher, which whom they had a woman actually work a 9 t0 5 job as a receptionists for the movie.

EOC: W2: Survey and Results

The Decline In Teen Fashion Spending

In 2007 Piper Jaffray conducted a mall research survey in ten cities across the United States which included research form 980 students, asking what they're purchasing behaviors were.  Piper Jaffray retail research team published key findings for teens' purchasing behaviors and preferences in the categories of fashion, apparel brands and retailers, beauty and personal care, home furnishings, video games, digital entertainment and restaurants. Piper Jaffray also partnered with the national DECA organization for the sixth time resulting in 3,000 additional completed online surveys. To his findings the fashion spending declined 24 percent from spring of 2007 due to the gradual maturing of the fashion cycle. Research showed that spending habits for young women went down 18 percent where as spending habits for young men went down 9 percent.  But for those that did spend, they spent a significant amount on the fashion department.

"The fashion category still represents 42 percent of the total teen budget for the fall 2007 season despite moderation in spending habits," said Jeff Klinefelter, senior retail research analyst at Piper Jaffray. "However, we found that spending expectations remain largely unchanged, as nearly 50 percent of the students plan to spend the same amount of money on apparel this season. We believe the discrepancy between budget dollars and expectations may be due to a decline in contributions from parents."Other key findings include:Teens were surveyed on their favorite places to shop and their spending habits. Hollister took the lead for the sixth consecutive time, followed by West Coast Brands, American Eagle, Abercrombie & Fitch and Forever 21. Aeropostale moved into the top ten retail brands for the first time, due to strong support from young women. Overall spending in the beauty category is down for teens and up for their parents. Eighty-three percent of teens indicated they own at least one video game console and 51 percent own at least two video game consoles. Sixty-two percent of teens plan to own a next generation video game system, which shows an increase of eight percentage points from the spring 2007 survey. When asked about buying habits of MP3 players and online music, 82 percent of the students who own an MP3 player indicated that they also own some form of an iPod, which is up from 79 percent in fall 2006. Purchasing online music is becoming more mainstream as 64 percent of the students surveyed indicated they download music illegally, compared to 72 percent at this time last year. Students completed survey questions on restaurants and spending on food this fall for the second time. approximately 44 percent of the students surveyed believe they have spent more money this year at restaurants than last year. http://www.piperjaffray.com/2col_largeright.aspx?id=716

BOC W2: Quiz 1

What is booty pop and what is the significant?

Booty pop is an online website that sells underwear, named Booty Pop for women that helps lifts and shapes a women's bottom so that she is confident and has the Hollywood back side. Since primarily sexual attraction comes from the buttock women today want that certain aspect to improve their backside.                 

http://www.bootypop.com/

Who spends more online, men or women? Proportion?                 

Research showed that 42 percent of men shop for luxury goods, compared with 35 percent of women. The survey stated that men were willing to spend and average of 326 dollars versus 284 dollars for women. It also showed that men were willing to spend 1, 751 for one single item where women would be willing to spend 787 dollars for a single item.        

http://www.opentechsupport.net/forum/general-news/30799-men-spend-more-than-woman-online.html

Who spends more time online, men or women?

        Women spend more time online than men do. This is because women are online on social networks 30 percent more then men are. This maybe because the fact that women love to conversation and share some new details about themselves to the world. As were men go on to shop, do some research and other “occasionally” check their social networks.        

http://socialtimes.com/women-more-on-social-web-than-men_b18934

What advantages do marketers have from women online then men?

        Marketers have the advantage over women online than men because women spend more time online and even though they don’t spend more online women do have the tendency to have rational motives. Another reason is because women are just simply a lot easier to market for then men are. 

EOC: W1: What I am expected from this class

What is expected from principles of marketing research? What does one get out of learning from such a thing, and how would one utilize it in the future? People may think that they won’t need it in the near future or even at all. But what they don’t realize is that we use this in our every day lives. Weather your selling or buying, Market is everywhere for us. So wouldn’t it be nice to know why and how they market? 

The things that are expected from Principles of marketing research are:

•  Gather, record, and analyze data related to the marketing of goods and services

This will help you explain the difference between primary and secondary research, and the reasons for primary research.  It will also explain essential data and analysis techniques.

• Relate the development of market research techniques to a historical context

This will help you define marketing segments, explain what a SIC is and its codes, list the types/ availability of standard research data and discuss the use of demographic data to create target segments.

•  Compare and contrast market research options and apply them to a planned campaign 

This will help you create a research plan; that will include research objectives and budgets. Determine if primary research must be conducted; present the results of marketing research in a readable report and ect.          

Therefore, the expectations from myself is to work effortless on achieving the above bullets, and get a great understanding of the course, Principles of Marketing Research. So not only will I have the knowledge but to use this in the near future, my every day life and in my future job, as well as to help other understand and utilize it in their ever day life and career.