EOC: Week 4: Secondary Data & Surveys

Discuss the advantages and disadvantages of using secondary data
Secondary data is a major component in market research, which develops a broader understanding of a business and consumer behaviors. "Consumers view the company as providing valuable bundles of benefits. There are many factors that can affect perceived value, and successful companies are those that understand the value equation" Secondary data is one of the selections of the basic research method along with experiments, surveys, and observation. Before trying to complete a project or launch a product, secondary data must be collected. "Secondary data usually are historical and already assembled. They require no additional access to research respondents or subjects. Secondary data is often thought of as quantitative, but many sources of qualitative secondary data also exist." Defined as "data previously collected for some other purpose other than the one at hand." Obtaining secondary data has the advantage of lower costs, timeliness, and availability. It also eliminates extra work when trying to gather primary data. Disadvantages of secondary data is that it is not meant to meet with researcher's needs, therefore, more detailed questions have to be asked in order for secondary data to be accurate and useful.

• Do the data apply to the population of interest?
• Do the data apply to the time period of interest?
• Do the secondary data appear in the correct units of measurement?
• Do the data appear relevant to the research question?
• Do the data cover the subject of interest in adequate detail?
• Do the data show evidence of reliability and validity?

Secondary data is not always relevant. "Relevance is the characteristics of data reflecting how pertinent these particular facts are to the situation at hand."


Define surveys and describe the type of information that may be gathered in a survey
Surveys is a   "method of collecting primary data based on communication (questions and answers) with a representative sample of respondents."
Information that surveys gather depend on the researcher's objective. Surveying is how researcher's describe what is currently happening. "More specifically, surveys gather information to assess consumer knowledge and awareness of products, brands, or issues and to measure consumer attitudes and feelings. Additionally, surveys describe consumer characteristics including purchasing patterns, brand usage, and descriptive characteristics including demographics and lifestyle"

EOC: WEEK 3: Nine to Five 25th Movie Anniversary

• The film was developed from just a concept "Secretaries want to kill their bosses". What market research techniques were used to develop the screenplay? What specific processes that are in the book or discussed in class were used?
• What ethical issues were parts of the plot line of the actual film? Although we did not watch the actual film, there were many ethical dilemmas referenced. What were they? How were they resolved?

Market research techniques that were used to develop the screenplay for "9 to 5" were exploratory, descriptive, and causal research.

• 1. Exploratory: Conducted to clarify ambiguous situations or discover ideas that may be potential business opportunities.     
• 2. Descriptive: Describes characteristics of objects, people, groups, organizations, or environments; tries to “paint a picture” of a given situation.
• 3. Causal: Allows causal inferences to be made; seeks to identify cause-and-effect relationships.

The use of exploratory research was to find out why women hated going to work, and even more specific, why women hated their bosses. Utilizing interviews allowed for screenwriters to understand women's opinion on working conditions and how they were treated back then. "Researchers usually undertake exploratory research with the full expectation that more research will be needed to provide more conclusive evidence. Using exploratory research can sometimes also make the difference in determining the relevance of follow-up research." Descriptive research was used to describe the vision of the movie. Movie scenes, which actresses played which roles, the decision to make the movie a comedy, plot lines, and everything that was need to produce the movie had to be described and finalized in order to receive any funding for production. "Marketing managers frequently need to determine who purchases a product, portray the size of the market, identify competitors' actions, and so on. Descriptive research addresses who, what, when, where, why, and how questions." Causal research seeks cause and effect relationships, therefore, the effect of the movie's debut could have brought about a negative or a positive response from their target audience. This type of research is done by the researcher who has the better understanding of what is being studied. All events and movie releases had to be sequenced and finalized by certain deadlines. "Causal research attempts to establish that when we do one thing, another thing will follow."

Ethical issues highlighted in "9 to 5" and their resolutions in the movie:

• Exploitation: The antagonist boss Mr. Hart (Dabney Coleman), is known for pursuing subordinates for information and taking it as his own. He refused to promote Violet (Lily Tomlin), with the assumption that clients prefer to do business with men.
• Sexual Harassment: Mr. Hart tries to begin an affair with his secretary Doralee Rhodes (Dolly Parton) in the workplace. Even after she refuses, because she is happily married, he spreads rumors about them, resulting in isolation from everyone else in the office for Doralee.
• Sexism: Mr. Hart strongly believes that men are superior to women, especially in the work force.
• Favoritism: Mr. Hart finds those who will do anything for him to stay ahead, like his assistant Roz Keith (Elizabeth Wilson) who eavesdrop on everything and everyone in the office.

The biggest solution to all these ethical issues is the movie "9 to 5" itself because it encourages awareness. In the 80's, women were fighting to become apart of the workforce as equals to men and many other issues were addressed in this movie to also spark some societal changes. The more humorous approach to solving these issues were happily demonstrated in the movie; kidnapping the boss, spiking the boss's coffee, threats to shoot him, and blackmail.

 

EOC: Week 2: Sample Survey

How much are you willing to spend for perfume?
Do you prefer a strong scent or a light scent?
How often do you buy perfume?
What is your gender?
What is your age range?
How many bottles of perfume do you own?
How much are you willing to spend on perfume?
Does the bottle or shape of the perfume help you decide whether to buy it or not?
How does wearing perfume make you feel?
Do you care how you smell?
Do you wear perfume for close encounters?
Do you wear perfume when you are intimate?
Where do you prefer to wear perfume?
Would you wear perfume in your house?
Would you wear perfume to the grocery store?
Do you wear perfume to attract people?
Do you feel attractive wearing your favorite scent?
Does wearing perfume encourage confidence?
How much do you put on?
Would you be comfortable spraying perfume in public?
Would you be comfortable sharing your perfume?

EOC: Week 1: What I am expecting from this class

Marketing has always been an interesting subject to me and I am excited to learn. My expectations for this class is to learn in-depth material about consumer needs and trends, how to create a successful survey, which resources are used by marketing professionals, how to develop a product through marketing research and everything else that is expected to be taught. I expect my instructor to conduct this class and themselves in a professional manner and hope that they will be open for discussion about topics I couldn’t quite understand during lecture. I expect the students to be professional as well and helpful to their peers that surround them. In all fairness, I must have expectations for myself as well, therefore; I expect to do the best I can in this class, pass, and hopefully leave with a better understanding of marketing principles.