TEAM CASE Hewlett-Packard (HP): Using Marketing Research to Gain a Competitive E
ID: 368455 • Letter: T
Question
TEAM CASE
Hewlett-Packard (HP): Using Marketing Research to Gain a Competitive Edge
INSTRUCTIONS: You are the lead marketing researcher or a marketing research consultant for HP.
1. Critically evaluate the HP questionnaire using the principles discussed in Chapter 11. Make at least three recommendations for change based on the evaluation. Be sure to provide justification for your recommendations.
2. HP wants to conduct a telephone survey to determine how it can attract families to HP PCs and notebooks. Design and present the sampling process. You may search the Internet and the library's online databases to obtain information that will assist in designing the process. Be sure to provide sufficient detail and support for the proposed sampling process.
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Case Link: http://www.chegg.com/homework-help/review-hewlett-packard-hp-case-case-questionnaire-given-towa-chapter-11-problem-1hpc-solution-9780132544481-exc
Explanation / Answer
Solution:-
1. For any survey to be conducted, there are 2 aspects to it. It can be broadly classified into Primary and Secondary Research.
Secondary research is simply the act of seeking out existing research and data. Secondary data could be US Census data, Twitter comments, journals, and much more. The best thing about secondary research is that is it often free and it usually can be done quickly. Your job as a secondary researcher is to find existing data that can be applied to your specific project. It is possible that you might not be able to find secondary data that is suitable for your research needs. If that’s the case, you’ll need to conduct your own primary research.
In this scenario of HP Survey, or Research, we are focussing on Primary Research only.
Primary Research can be done by the following ways :
1. Surveys :
Surveys are perhaps the most widely known and utilized method when it comes to market research. Surveys come in a wide variety of shapes and sizes, from that little “feedback card” on the table at your favorite restaurant to those never-ending web surveys that make you want to punch your computer.
Surveys make a lot of sense when the following conditions are true:
-You want to measure something objectively (or quantitatively).
-You have something specific to measure. In other words, you are beyond the exploratory portion of your research and you now want to test more specific questions.
-You have a relatively large sample to query.
-You have the resources (time and money) to conduct a survey.
2. Focus Groups : Focus groups involve getting a group of people together in a room (usually physically, although technology is making virtual, or online focus groups more feasible). These people fit a target demographic (e.g. “mothers under 40 with an income over $50k”, “college males who play 8 or more hours of video games a week”, etc.) depending on the product or service in question. Participants are almost always compensated in some way, whether it be a money, coupons, free products, etc. A moderator will guide the discussion, with a goal of getting participants to discuss the topic among themselves, bouncing thoughts off of one another in a natural group setting. Professional focus group rooms will have a one-way mirror on one wall, with a team of observers on the other side. The company or group that commissioned the study can sit-in on the meeting, along with members of the research team who can take notes without disrupting the participants.
Focus groups are excellent for exploratory, qualitative research. In the “new mouse trap” example, a focus group can reveal all sorts of important mouse trap attributes that might not have been considered otherwise. Focus groups are great tools to use prior to a survey, because it will inform your survey questions to be more specific and targeted. Focus groups can also be beneficial after a survey, as a way to dive very deep into a topic that came up in the survey
3. Interviews :
Like focus groups, individual interviews are a qualitative market research method. To simplify things, think of individual interviews as focus groups with only one participant and one moderator (interviewer). There is a wide spectrum of interviewing formats, depending on the goal of the interview. Interviews can be free flowing conversations that are loosely constrained to a general topic of interest, or they might be highly structured, with very specific questions and/or activities (e.g. projective techniques such as word association, fill in the blank, etc.) for the subject.
Like focus groups, interviews are useful for exploratory research. Use this market research method when you are interested in digging into a specific issue very deeply, searching for customer problems, understanding psychological motivations and underlying perceptions, etc.
4. Experiments and Field Trials : Experiments and field trials involve scientific testing, where specific variables and hypotheses can be tested.
These tests can be conducted in controlled environments or out in the field (natural settings). This form of market research is always quantitative in nature.
5. Observation: Observational research can come in a different shapes and sizes. In general, there are two categories: strict observation with no interaction with the subject at all, or observation with some level of intervention/interaction between the researcher and subject. The greatest benefit of this technique is that researchers can measure actual behavior, as opposed to user-reported behavior. That’s a big deal, because people will often report one thing on a survey, but behave in another way when the rubber hits the road. Observational research is a direct reflection of “real life,” so these insights are often very reliable and useful.
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