The Shell Oil Company, which began about 1912, had been for decades a household

Question

The Shell Oil Company, which began about 1912, had been for decades a household name as a quality oil company in the United States. However, by the late 1970s much of its prestige as a premiere company had disappeared. How could Shell regain its high status? In the 1990s, Shell undertook an extensive research effort to find out what it needed to do to improve its image. As a first step, Shell hired Responsive Research and the Opinion Research Corporation to conduct a series of focus groups and personal interviews among various segments of the population. Included in these were youths, minorities, residents in neighborhoods near Shell plants, legislators, academics, and present and past employees of Shell. The researchers learned that people believe that top companies are integral parts of the communities in which the companies are located rather than separate entities. These studies and others led to the development of materials that Shell used to explain their core values to the general public. Next, PERT Survey Research ran a large quantitative study to determine which values were best received by the target audience. Social issues emerged as the theme with the most support. During the next few months, the advertising agency of Ogilvy & Mather, hired by Shell, developed several campaigns with social themes. Two market research companies were hired to evaluate the receptiveness of the various campaigns. The result was the “Count on Shell” campaign, which featured safety messages with useful information about what to do in various dangerous situations. A public “Count on Shell” campaign was launched in February 1998 and met with considerable success: the ability to recall Shell advertising jumped from 20% to 32% among opinion influencers, and more than 1 million copies of Shell's free safety brochures were distributed. By promoting itself as a reliable company that cares, Shell seems to be regaining its premiere status. Today, Shell initiates and supports several programs in which the company and employees are involved in community and civic activities. These programs range from local improvement projects to fundraising events for regional nonprofit organizations. According to company sources, “every year, more than 1,500 Shell employees, retirees and their family members contribute, on average, more than 40,000 hours for company-sponsored volunteer initiatives nationwide” in the United States. Some of these include America's WETLAND Campaign, Shell's Workforce Development Initiative, and United Way campaigns. Shell U.S. has been a strong supporter of the Points of Light Foundation; and each fall, Shell volunteers participate in the cleaning of beaches in Texas, Louisiana, and California. In addition, Shell sponsors the Shell Houston Open PGA golf tournament, which has raised $50 million since 1974 for various children's charity organizations.

7.1 Suppose you were asked to develop a sampling plan to determine what a “premiere company” is to the general public. What sampling plan would you use? What is the target population? What would you use for a frame? Which of the four types of random sampling discussed in this chapter would you use? Could you use a combination of two or more of the types (two-stage sampling)? If so, how?

Explanation / Answer

7.1

Sampling Plan: Cluster Sampling method and Stratified Sampling Method.

Target Population of Responsive Research and the Opinion Research Corporation: Youths, Minorities, Neighborhood near shell plants, legislators, academics, past and present employees of shell.

My Target Population would be: Students, academics, legislators, employees of shell, employees of other companies in the neighborhood, NGOs, bureaucrats and Businessmen.

Yes, two-stage sampling method will be used, as mentioned above.

Cluster Sampling method: First the neighborhood where Shell Co. is situated will be divided into different clusters like counties or constituencies. In each county or constituency, further stratified sampling method will be adopted to divide the population as per the target population mentioned above.

The neighboorhood can also be split into six parts: North, North-east, North-west, South, South-East, South-West regions and in each region, the population can be futher divided as per stratified sampling method. Ex., if the percentage of population is as as shown below:

Students - 38%

Academics - 5%

Legislators - 1%

Bureaucrats - 4%

Employees of Shell - 1%

Employees of other companies - 30%

NGOs - 1%

Businessmen - 20%

And if the sample size is 100 respondents (example), the stratified sampling method in each of the six regions would consist of the following respondents:

Students - 38

Employees of other companies - 30

Businessmen - 20

Academics - 5

Bureaucrats - 4

Employees of shell - 1

NGOs - 1

Legislators - 1

------------------------Thank you--------------------------------------

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