UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON

UNIVERSITY OF MASSACHUSETTS BOSTON COLLEGE OF MANAGEMENT DEPARTMENT OF MANAGEMENT AND MARKETING MKT310 - DATA ANALYSIS OF MARKETING MANAGEMENT Spring 2015 Classroom: W-2-107 Class Meeting Time: M&W 9:30 – 10:45 am Office Hours: M&W 10:45am - 11:45 am/F 10:00 – 11:00 am I.

Dr. Raymond R. Liu Office: M-5-222 Tel: (617) 287-7739 [email protected]

Course Materials – Textbook: Brown, Suter, & Churchill: Basic Marketing Research, 8th Edition. Stamford, CT: Cengage Learning, 2014.

Useful websites: http://www.bizstats.com http://www.census.gov/csd/susb/susb.htm http://www.sba.gov/advo/stats/ http://www.stat-usa.gov/ (pay small fees) http://www.mhhe.com/business/opsci/bstat/ II.

Course Background: Because today's marketplace is increasingly globalized, digitalized, and information-oriented, effective marketing research is necessary for successful management of all phases of the marketing process, such as product life cycle (Introduction, Growth, Maturity, and Decline), four P's (Product, Price, Promotion, and Place), and Four C's (Customer, Cost, Communication, and Convenience). This course is intended to acquaint you with the fundamental marketing research skills of problem formulation, research design, questionnaire design, data collection, data analysis, report writing, and presentation. The heart of this course is a group research project, which will take the entire semester to complete. This will be a demanding project (see Product Guideline for details). However, by the time it is completed, you will have mastered an array of extremely important skills, such as: - Business research problem formulation skills - Research design skills - Secondary data collecting skills - Questionnaire design skills - Field data collecting skills - Data analysis skills - Research report writing and presenting skills

- Team work and group learning skills III.

Learning Objectives: 1. To understand the basic concepts and process of marketing research in the context of business organizations. 2. To understand how research can be a powerful tool for understanding and analyzing the increasingly globalized and digitalized environments for both business and nonprofit organizations. 3. To improve your ability to actually use research as a formalized means of obtaining information to be used in making business decisions in the context of increasingly globalized, diverse, and information-oriented marketplace and business world. 4. To develop your team work and group learning skills.

IV.

Course Format: The course goals are achieved through several means: - Lectures: The lecture will be based largely on the materials covered in the text but not be restricted to the text. You are expected to read the assigned chapters before the class meetings. Reading assignments are listed below with the course outline. They have been selected to parallel, in a general way, the course progression. The readings are intended as an important source to provide vocabulary, facts, concepts, techniques and analytical approaches. - Participation: Class participation will represent an important portion of the total course. Regular class attendance and active, articulate, and insightful participation are necessary if the course is to be a worthwhile experience for you and your class members. - Cases: Cases provide a means of applying concepts to real world scenarios. Several cases and mini-cases covering a broad range of topics in marketing research will be studied. - Tutorials: Tutorials will be conducted at our computer lab to provide direct experience with data analysis of marketing research through SPSS for WindowsTM. - Guest Speech: Guest speaker(s) will be invited to our classroom to give presentation(s) about how they conduct marketing research. - Project: The project will provide first hand experience of carrying out a marketing research project from start to finish. It is required to be done in a group of three to five people as a group term project. - Assignment: Assignment will enhance the marketing research process at different stages. - Exams: Exams provide a test of understanding of concepts as well as their application. Short-essay and multiple-choice questions will be used in the exams.

V.

Couse Organization Individual Work primarily from the text but will also include materials covered in class that are not in the text. Students will be responsible for all class materials covered in: a) required readings, b) lectures, c) guest speakers, d) handouts, and e) cases. Not only will they be expected to know the terms, but also how to apply them in different business situations. Exams are not cumulative (100 points each); they will cover only the materials presented during that interval of the course. A missed exam can be made up only with the permission of the instructor. All excuses must be submitted in writing, must be signed by the excusing authority, and must include complete contact information for the authority, including telephone numbers and physical address. An unexcused absence from an exam will be recorded as a grade of zero. -class or take-home) on current events, readings, lectures, and discussions. Each exercise is worth 25 points. There will be no make-up exercises without prior arrangement.

Please contact the instructor prior to class if you know you cannot attend. Alternative assignments may be provided in lieu of attendance on a specific day. This is designed to be an interactive class, and discussion is of the utmost importance. You should come to class prepared to discuss the topic of the day. arch Experience: As part of the requirements for this course, MKT 301 students are expected to participate in a research study conducted by the marketing faculty at the UMass Boston. The research requirement serves as an educational experience allowing students to see first-hand how to conduct marketing research and to have an advantage of discussing this research after participation is complete. It also allows students to make a meaningful contribution to the sum of human knowledge by providing information that may solve important marketing questions. Group Project : You will conduct a marketing research project working in teams of 4-5 students. Your team will be assigned based on the background and the areas of interest that you express in the “background and interest” survey. This marketing research project will be for an actual business of your group’s choice that is approved by the instructor or assignment of your instructor. You may want to consider contacting a local business or choosing a publicly held

company. Ideally, your marketing research project will investigate business issues for a real business (The Project Guideline is listed below). -class presentation of the marketing plan. Each team member is expected to participate actively in this presentation. The presentation will be evaluated on both content and style. Please use PowerPoint or other presentation tools.

rate the performance of other team members. Students need to complete this peer evaluation to receive their own team evaluation grades. VI. Course Schedule: Date

Topic

1/26 1/28 2/2 2/4 2/9 2/11 2/18 2/23 2/25 3/2 3/4 3/9 3/11 3/23

Introduction Research Process Problem Formulation Exploratory Research Decision Support Systems I Decision Support Systems II Secondary Data Research Casual Research Descriptive Research Mid-Term Exam Observation Research Collecting Data Measurement Questionnaire Design

3/25

Sampling Plan

3/30 4/1 4/6 4/8 4/13 4/15 4/22 4/27 4/29 5/4 5/6 5/11 5/13 5/x

Data Collection/Preparation Data Analysis I SPSS I* Data Analysis I SPSS II* Data Analysis II SPSS III* Communicating Research Results I* Communicating Research Results II * Project Analysis I SPSS IV* Project Analysis III SPSS V* Research Results Exam II Research Project Preparation Presentation I Presentation II Final Exam

*Green Lab (H-UL-28) VII. Project Guideline PROJECT DESCRIPTION

Assignment Chapter 1 Chapter 2 Chapter 3 Chapter 4 Chapter 5 Chapter 6 Chapter 7 Chapter 8 Chapter 9 Chapter 10 Chapter 11 Chapter 12 Chapter 13 - Hand in your research proposal Chapter 14 - Hand in your questionnaire Chapter 15/16 Chapter 17 Chapter 18 Chapter 18 Chapter 19/20

- Hand in the research report

The group project is a survey-based research project, which will familiarize you with all stages of a marketing research project. Since most (or all) of you have taken MKT 301 (Principles of Marketing), a real marketing research project will be assigned for the class (the detailed project description will be discussed in class). Therefore, after this course, you will be able to revise your resume by adding the project you are going to finish at the end of this semester. PROJECT PROCEDURE AND TIMELINE In general, note that it is the responsibility of your project group to make sure that your project is completed in a timely manner. You must anticipate potential problems before they occur! If your group is working in conjunction with a firm (or a non-profit organization), you must be proactive in dealing with your sponsor. Do not wait until the last minute to provide your sponsor with information and expect your sponsor to give you a decision on the spot. Plan ahead! The project will require a field research strategy that gathering information directly from respondents with a questionnaire. More specifically, in order to analyze your data timely, you need to get all the filled questionnaire back before you enter them into computer; and in order to get all the filled questionnaire back timely, you need to distribute your questionnaire to respondents two to four weeks (it varies according to what data collection method you are going to use) in advance. In addition, a well-designed sampling plan should be prepared and a field trip diary should be kept by each member of a research group. GROUP AND INDIVIDUAL ASSIGNMENTS FOR THE PROJECT Among the five assignments, the first one and the last one should be submitted one for each group, and the rest of them should be submitted not only the finalized one for each group, but also the original one each individual contributes to the group. In this way, everyone will have the opportunity to learn from his/her own work and from the group's as well. VIII. Organization of the Project Report 1. Title Page:

2. Executive Summary:

3. Table of Contents: 4. Introduction:

- topic title - as precisely as possible - for whom it is prepared - who prepared it - date of the report - heart of the report - be clear & concise: (1) objectives (2) findings and conclusions (3) recommendations - list all the title and subtitles - list all names of diagrams and tables - background information - research objectives

5. Research Process:

- define the business and research problem(s) - select the data collection method(s) - select the measurement technique(s) - select the sample - select the analytical method(s) - analyze the results 6. Findings and Recommendations: - findings: managerial meaning of the results - conclusions: logical conclusions from the findings - limitations - recommendations IX.

Course Evaluation:

INDIVIDUAL WORK: Exercises (4) Exams (2) Attendance & Participation

PERCENT 10% 40% 10%

POINTS 50 points 200 points 50 points

GROUP PROJECT: Marketing Research Project Team Presentation Team Evaluation TOTAL

30% 7% 3% 100%

150 points 35 points 15 points 500 points

X. Academic Policies and Resources Academic Honesty: Plagiarism includes copying someone else's words and claiming them as your own, paraphrasing someone else's words and/or ideas and claiming them as your own, or collaborating excessively with another person or persons and claiming the work as solely your own. If you are unclear about what constitutes plagiarism, please see me for an explanation. Plagiarism on any assignment will, at minimum, result in an "F" for the assignment. I reserve the right to pursue further disciplinary action if appropriate (e.g., any student caught cheating on an exam will receive an "F" for the course). I strongly recommend students maintain a record of the preparation of their assignments. For further information, refer to the Code of Student Conduct section listed in the University Catalog, the Student Handbook, or at http://www.umb.edu/life_on_campus/policies/regulations/academic_dishonesty Disabilities: If you have a disability and feel you will need accommodations in order to complete course requirements, please contact the Ross Center for Disability Services (M-1-401) at (617) 287-7430. For more information see:

http://www.rosscenter.umb.edu/ CM Writing Guide: For the CM writing guide and other http://www.mgmt.umb.edu/academicres.html

useful

information

please

see:

Library Resources for Management Students: The library has available for us several very useful management databases, including Business Source Premier and Lexus/Nexus. These resources, specifically targeted to Management will allow you get more information and more accessible information than just doing a Google search. They are available over the internet, on or off-campus (with your umb ID) 24 hours a day. http://www.lib.umb.edu/databases/db_browse_subject.cfm

STUDENT INFORMATION

NAME: _______________________________ TEAM: ___________________ (Instructor's use) RESIDENCE: a) less than 20 minutes driving from UMass _________ b) 20 to 40 minutes driving from UMass __________ c) more than 40 minutes driving from UMass ________ YOU COME TO SCHOOL: By Public Transportation _____ TELEPHONES:

By Car _____

a) ______________________________ (Day) b) ______________________________ (Evening)

EMAIL ADDRESS:__________________________________________

EMPLOYMENT:

None ____

Part Time ____

Full Time ____

HAVE YOU PARTICIPATED OR CONDUCTED ANY MARKETING RESEARCH/SURVEY BEFORE: Yes ____ No ____ WHAT INDUSTRY WOULD YOU LIKE TO WORK WITH AFTER YOUR GRADUATION:

BACKGROUND, INTERESTS, AND ANYTHING ELSE you would like to tell me about yourself: