You are the lead marketing researcher or a marketing research consultant for HP.

Question

You are the lead marketing researcher or a marketing research consultant for HP. To become familiar with the situation at HP, review the information on pages 570 through 574. Then do the following:

1.  Critically evaluate the HP questionnaire using the marketing principles. 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.

Running Case with Real Data Case 1.1 Hewlett-Packard (HP) Using Marketing Research to Gain a Competitive Edge The Hewett-Packard Company (HP) is known worldwide for its printers, personal computers, and related services. With Headquarters in Palo Alto, California, it has a global presence in the fields of computing, printing, and digital imaging. It markets products such as printers, cameras, and ink cartridges to households and small businesses. It also provides software and services (www.hp.com). The company once catered primarily to engineering and medical markets but spun off that line of business as Agilent Technologies in 1999. Founded by Stanford graduates William Hewlett and David Packard in Palo Alto in 1934, Hewlett and Packard started HP with an investment of $538. The company incorporated 15 years later and went public in 1957. Not until the 1960s and 1970s did HP recognize the market for information technology products. As a consequence of meeting this need, HP introduced the computer industry to Silicon Valley. At the time, products from Silicon Valley were limited to calculators, converters, and semiconverters. In the 1980s, HP began to develop industrial laser printers for desktops and prospered. In the 1990s, HP expanded its computer-product line, which initially had been targeted at university, research, and business customers, to consumers. Later in the decade, HP launched hpshopping.com as an independent subsidiary to sell online, direct to consumers; the store was rebranded "HP Home & Home Office Store" in 2005. HP also grew through acquisitions, buying Apollo Computer in 1989, Convex Computer in 1995, and Compaq in 2002. Compaq itself had bought Tandem Computers in 1997 (which had been started by ex-HP employees) and Digital Equipment Corporation in 1998. Following this strategy, HP became a major player in desktops, laptops, and servers for many different markets. HP posted $91.7 billion in annual revenue in 2006 compared to $91.4 billion for IBM, making it the world's largest technology vendor in terms of sales. In October 2006, HP gained the number one ranking in worldwide personal computer shipments, surpassing rival Dell. The gap between HP and Dell widened substantially at the end of 2006, with HP taking a near 3.5 percent market share lead. In 2007 the revenue was $104 billion, making HP the first IT company in history to report revenues exceeding $100 billion. HP posted $114.6 billion in annual revenue in 2009 and $127.16 billion in 2010, continuing its growth trajectory SPSS Data File Excel Data File As of 2011, HP is a global technology company. It generates net revenue and earns its profits from the sale of products, technologies, solutions, and services to consumers, businesses, and governments. HP's portfolio includes personal computers, handheld computing devices, home and business imaging and printing devices, publishing systems, storage and servers, a wide array of information technology services, and software solutions. HP has a dynamic, powerful team of 150,000 employees with capabilities in 170 countries doing business in more than 40 currencies and more than 10 languages. According to Computer Industry Almanac Inc., in 2005, in the first 30 years of the PC industry worldwide-from 1975 to 2004-cumulative PC sales have surpassed 1.4 billion units, reaching nearly 130 million units in 1990, and more than 1.6 billion units in 2005. As seen from Table 1, the leading PC companies have changed considerably in the last 20 years. Apple and IBM were the worldwide leaders in PC unit sales until the early 1990s. Since 1994, Compaq, Dell, or HP has been the leader in PC unit sales. Marketing Issue and Marketing Research

Explanation / Answer

1. The crtical evaluation of the HP questionnaire is as follows:

2. Sampling process for the survey:

Step 1: Avail the list of telephone numbers from the telephone exchange office

Step 2: Use N/1+N.e2 to find the total number of sample needed

Step 3: Based on the telephone area code proportionately choose the number of sample from each of the area code

Step 4: Use random sampling through computer generated random numbers to select whcih number to call from the telephone area list.

The process is called as Proportionate Stratified Random Sampling Process in which we divide the population into different zones where the random selection is done proprotionately to finally choose the total number of sample needed in the research process.

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