1. You are the newly appointed Senior Director of Marketing at the Sweet & Stick
ID: 1202044 • Letter: 1
Question
1. You are the newly appointed Senior Director of Marketing at the Sweet & Sticky Candy Company, which manufactures a variety of chocolate candy bars sold in retail stores. One of your direct reports is the Market Research Director, who will be making an all-day presentation to you next week. Please describe what you want presented to you and why?
2. The president of your company (a medium-sized health maintenance organization) has asked you to conduct research into patient use of your facility during the last two years. What ethical issues do you want to consider, as you design the research?
3. Sales for your 120-store women’s clothing chain are down 42% for the last fiscal year compared to the previous year. Management is upset and wants to know what caused the serious decline. You must research the situation and offer some recommendations. Describe your thinking for how you would design the research, noting any specific statistical processes that you might use.
4. You are the Human Resources Director for a telemarketing firm that provides customer-care services for several contracted companies. Last year, you implemented a new training program that focused on initial training for newly hired customer-service representatives. Currently, you have 238 customer-service representatives, all of which have been with you less than three years, with 135 hired since you implemented the new training program. Please describe the process that you would use to determine the effectiveness of the new program versus the old program, explain what you hope to learn from each qualitative and quantitative process.
5. One of your marketing brand managers wants to advertise a claim that your products are preferred 2 to 1 over all of your competitors, based upon some recent consumer research. Please describe what you would want to know about the research before approving such a claim.
6. You have been asked to lead a presentation to your company on market research. Please describe what you would share with them and why?
7. You have been given the responsibility of supervising 12 MBA summer interns, hired specifically to conduct internal research for your company. You are concerned that they do not fully understand the importance of ensuring adherence to the principles of internal and external validity. Provide a brief summary of your training session to cover this topic.
8. You have been assigned to contract with an outside research firm to do both qualitative and quantitative research project for your company. Describe the criteria that you would establish in making this selection. In addition, explain your reasons for either selecting the same firm to conduct both or to select two different research firms.
9. You have just spent several hundred thousand dollars on a research assignment, researching a project that your president wanted completed to support a major new initiative. The research results significantly contradict the intentions of the president. How are you going to present the results?
10. You are the Marketing Vice President and one of your directors has prepared the following research proposal for your review and approval. Please evaluate the proposal and choose to approve or disapprove it. Justify your answers.
TO: Marketing VP
FR: Marketing Director
RE: Consumer Advisory Panels
Background: Given the dramatic changes that have occurred in our industry since September 11, many of the current marketing programs have not been as effective as in the past in generating new customers and keeping current customers. Previous focus groups and surveys have not provided the answers that we need because new respondents participate each time, limiting continuity from research findings.
Proposal: It is proposed that we organize a group of consumer advisory panels to which we could present product ideas, evaluate competitive products, and discuss issues about advertising, product quality, and customer loyalty. It is proposed that we organize one group of 20 panelists in each of our eight sales regions. Panelist’s compensation will be $150 per 2-hour session, with a session planned every 60 days. Panelists will be selected randomly from our customer base for a one-year period, with new panelists included every six months. These groups will be facilitated by members of the marketing department and recorded for future reference.
Costs: Total annual costs will be $160,000, which will be taken from the $890,000 secondary research budget.
Pilot Test: Two groups will be set up in the closest regions to trial the process and determine its effectiveness. If these first groups are successful, other groups will be organized in 90 days to complete the panels.
I am requesting $20,000 to initiate the first two groups and would like to have both in place within 30 days. Your approval is requested before I begin.
Sincerely,
Chris Jones
Explanation / Answer
Answer 1) Being a marketing director implies a lot of responsibilities that also include research on part of market in which the compan runs. As the director is newl appointed it would be necessar for him to understand various important variables of market that would be responsible for success of the firm. thus the director would like to hear about the curren position of the firm in market, current competitors, upcoming ooportunities and threats from enviironment. Current position update will help to find out how well firm is going and wha neccesarr acvions can be taken to improve functioning of firm. competitors analsis will help to formulate strategies so that survival and success can be acheived. Upcoming oportunities and threats from enviironment will help in taking proactive actions to grab opportunivies and to avoid threats.
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