Exploring Marketing - Research Paper Example

QUESTION Short messaging has always been one of the basic ways many people, old and young communicate to achieve or pass messages which they now consider a better way of communication. Shorty messaging dates back to some years when the mobile phones were introduced and have spread to all parts of the world’s leading to integration into human life. SMS mobile company is one of the numerous leading companies that make it possible for many people to communicate effectively and therefore leading to the ease of communication that we experience today. A research has been designed to outline and highlight the features of the service that exist and are satisfactory top the users. The research shall also identify the challenges as well as the weaknesses of this service as provided by SMS mobile company, basing on the result from customer responses. Mobile usage was initially common among very few individuals who could afford the services. These were the rich businessmen of very high esteem. Today, mobile services a widely used by the young people between fifteen and eighteen years of age. This research shall involve the various stages that assist in research. Field work will be done and preceded by armchair research that shall put down the report. The research methodology shall involver interviews among the young as well as questionnaires that will be administered to one hundred respondents. The questionnaires shall basically focus on the various features of the service such as service reply reliability as well as the duration of message delivery. The questionnaire shall also seek top find the average e=ages of the respondents upon analysis. This will help find out the heavy users of the services and record their age bracket. The data obtained shall be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). The reason for choosing questionnaires in the research is basically because of the sample size. The sample size could be very large but the sample selected represents the views of the others due to the uniformity of mobile services. The questionnaires are very precise and do not seek to know the name of the respondents. This then encourages and increases accuracy in the data collection exercise. QUESTION 2 The first portable computers were introduced in early 1975 around California. With advancement in technology in which virtually all leading manufacturers of computers have gone through, very reliable high-speed portable computers have been introduced in the market and are widely used today in businesses as well as personal ventures. Due to the generation that has witnessed the development made in the side of computer advancement, the young people have been exposed more into the use of these computers. The ultimate difference or challenge in the use of these computers is the cost of acquiring a computer. This has led to the fact that only those with a reasonable income. A research has been initiated to dig deeper into the fact and figures regarding the services offered by these computers that are unique in a way that only the young are able to manipulate the computers for results. The research shall seek to find out the challenges these computers have brought as well as the significance of these computers. The research shall target young people of reasonably stable income. The challenges and general report obtained shall be used to improve the market and satisfy the potential clients. The research shall begin by identifying the objectives as well as the research questions that will help identifying the nature and scope of the study. This will lead to the sampling where a specific sample of those who will be involved in the research. The methodology shall involve the administration of questionnaires but scheduled interview shall be very effective. The effectiveness of these interviews is based on the fact that the respondents are able to demonstrate as well as show the challenges using the same computers that are in question. The sample size shall depend upon the number of users in the specific area selected for the study. The data obtained shall be analyzed using Statistical Package for the Social Sciences (SPSS). QUESTION 3 QUESTIONNAIRE Instructions Please tick where appropriate. Do not write your name anywhere in this questionnaire Age …………… Gender …………….. Date …………………….. 1. You have been a resident less than 5 years more than 5 years 2. What do you enjoy in the cafe? Food, drink both both 3. What is your view on the prices? Very expensive Expensive Cheap Very cheap 4. What is the quality of food at the cafe? Excellent Very good Good Average Bad 5. What is your attitude towards the serving staff? Very Efficient Efficient Fairly efficient Not efficient 6. Is the staff polite to the customers? Yes No 7. Would you recommend a friend to try the cafe? Yes No 8. In your own words, briefly suggest the ways in which the cafe can be improved for better performance. If the cafe is satisfactory, explain the reason to your view. ……………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………… QUESTION 4 QUESTIONNAIRE Wombat Bank INSTRUCTIONS Please tick where appropriate and provide comments where appropriate Do not write your name anywhere on this questionnaire. Age ……………… Sex ………….. Date ……………………. 1. How long have you been a customer at Wombat Bank? Less than 5 years More than 5 years 2. Does the bank have Automated Teller Machines Yes No 3. Are the machines placed in many locations? Yes No 4. How reliable are the machines? Very reliable Reliable Fairly reliable Not reliable 5. Are the machines frequently out of service? Yes No 6. In the questions below use the key provided to respond. SA – strongly agree A – Agree D – Disagree SD – Strongly Disagree UD - Undecided SA A D c UD The service over the counter is very satisfactory The staff is very polite to customers Bank charges on mortgages are good SA A D D UD Bank charges to savings are very good 7. In your own words express your view , in general, on the services offered by Wombat Bank ………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………. QUESTION 5 a. The type of analysis is the Reliability Analysis method Reliability analysis is the type of analysis used to construct and improve existing scales, and also to give an evaluation of the reliability of scales that have been already used. This type of analysis especially gives an exclusive opportunity of aiding in the technical designing and quality evaluation of sum scales. Sum scales are scales that are composed of multiple but individual measurements i.e. many unique items and repeated measurements In reliability analysis a measurement is considered reliable if it reflects the truest score, with respect to the error. The analysis of scale reliability is heavily based on the correlations between the measurements that make up the scale or the individual characters. It is therefore best to be familiarized with variance statistic or the correlation coefficient. Reliability analysis is therefore testing hypotheses about relationships between objects and tests. It also tries to ascertain true scores and error in measurements therefore giving us accurate reliable test results that can be used to make crucial judgments and decisions upon them. The output provided by this method of analysis utilizes the measure of Cranach’s alpha, which is the most used mode of statistic and is used to describe the internal consistency reliability of a set of items. b. First of all I would I would review the Cranach’s alpha implication and in this case I would consider removing Q18D since it has the lowest Cranach’s alpha value therefore it does not go well with the rest. The evidence to support this course of action is that when we view the column “Corrected item-Total Correlation” we find that Q18D it has an alpha value of .6561 which is the lowest in that column meaning it does not go well with the rest therefore if the item-total correlation is close to zero, then we have to consider removing it from our scale since it is not measuring the same value as the rest of the items. QUESTION 6 a. I would run such an analysis to determining the outcome of the introduction of this product to the market, by this I would be able to forecast the future demand of the product and also be able to correct the inadequacies of the product since we will be able to know the preference of our target group, and better yet rank our product in our customers’ most preferred product list. b. if I got this output out of my analysis I would consider removing item Q17D since if we refer to the ‘Corrected Item-Total Correlation’ its evident that it has the lowest Cranach alpha value therefore it does not blend well with the rest of the items which have a relatively higher alpha value. c. the evidence in this output Is found when we compare the ‘Corrected Item-Total Correlation’ column and the ‘Alpha if Item is Deleted’ column we see that the alpha value in the alpha if item is deleted column for item Q17D is highest compared to all the other product therefore implying if we do away with item Q17D we would end up with a reasonably high alpha value. Therefore it is advisable to delete item Q17D. QUESTION 7 a. We are utilizing the correlation analysis method using the correlation coefficient which is a direct measure of how well two sample populations vary jointly. A value of r=+1 signifies a perfect fit to a positive linear model, therefore for a value of r=+1 or -1 it indicates a high degree of correlation and an impressive fit to a linear model. Values near zero indicate a poor fit to the linear model. b. Satisfaction Satisfaction Unreliability Intent to Rebuy Friendly Satisfaction Perfect correlation Weak negative correlation Strong positive correlation Weak positive correlation Unreliability Strong negative correlation Perfect correlation Weak negative correlation Weak positive correlation Intent to Rebuy Strong positive correlation Weak negative correlation Perfect correlation Weak positive correlation Friendly Weak positive correlation Weak positive correlation Weak positive correlation Perfect correlation Weak negative correlation implies that as one of the items is decreasing the other one is increasing hence cannot fit in a negative linear model. Strong negative correlation implies that the items have a negative linear relationship hence as one item rises or increases the other decreases linearly. Weak positive correlation implies that the items have a positive linear relationship therefore as one item increase it relatively increase the other but not by a high margin. Strong positive correlation implies the items have a positive linear relationship which depicts that as one item increases the other increases relatively and proportionately. a. they are very logical especially to the nature of the supplying firm’s business and buying firms for example if we take unreliability and intent to rebuy, we can see that it has a correlation of -.359 which implies that if the unreliability of the commodity were to shoot up, then the intent to buy this commodities would significantly shoot down. b. to improve the commodity sales upon further analysis it is advisable to improve the reliability of the product considering it has the weakest correlation value. Question 8 a. we are utilizing the correlation analysis method using the correlation coefficient which is a direct measure of how well two sample populations vary jointly. A value of r=+1 signifies a perfect fit to a positive linear model, therefore for a value of r=+1 or -1 it indicates a high degree of correlation and an impressive fit to a linear model. Values near zero indicate a poor fit to the linear model. b. Likelihood of purchasing a competitor’s Brand Product performance Intention to purchase our brand Strength of our brand name Likelihood of purchasing a competitor’s Brand Perfect correlation Strong negative correlation Strong negative correlation Weak negative correlation Product performance Medium negative correlation Perfect correlation Weak positive correlation Weak positive correlation Intention to purchase our brand Strong negative correlation Strong positive correlation Perfect correlation Weak positive correlation Strength of our brand name Weak negative correlation Weak positive correlation Weak positive correlation Perfect correlation Weak negative correlation implies that as one of the items is decreasing the other one is increasing hence cannot fit in a negative linear model. Strong negative correlation implies that the items have a negative linear relationship hence as one item rises or increases the other decreases linearly. Weak positive correlation implies that the items have a positive linear relationship therefore as one item increase it relatively increase the other but not by a high margin. Strong positive correlation implies the items have a positive linear relationship which depicts that as one item increases the other increases relatively and proportionately. c. Upon further analysis it would be of great importance if we worked on the strength of our product so as to push the correlation values up thereby making a counter effect to the likelihood of purchasing a competitors brand. Question 9 We are using the anova method and one of the purposes of this method is to find out if data retrieved from several groups have a common mean. That is to find out if the groups are actually unique in the measured characteristics. This model uses a standard table that has columns for the sums of squares, degrees of freedom, mean squares (SS/df), F statistic and p value. We use the f statistic to perform the hypothesis test and find out if the data is from the same group. b. the results imply that the data is from the same group since we know that the F statistic tests whether at least one of the regression coefficients differ from its null value. The R-square is the ratio of the sum of squares explained by a regression model and the total sum of all squares around the mean. It can be easily calculated from the anova table. c. these findings imply that the product clearly has a problem when it comes to the ease of use therefore it should be redesigned to be simpler to use and customer friendly. Question 10 From the model summary we see that the value of R- square is below 1 therefore implying that the formulae that were used which focuses on minimizing the SS error. in this R- squared increases as the number of variables in the model are increased. The high value of the F-statistic implies that the data is very much from the same group. The implication of this analysis is that with the independent variable being the intention to revisit cafe x it was worthwhile to note that the decor of the cafe x, quality of food in cafe x and uniform sworn by cafe x staff were the factors that affected the customers intention to revisit the cafe x. Question 10 From the model summary we see that the value of R- square is below 1 therefore implying that the formula that was used which focuses on minimizing the SS error. in this R- squared increases as the number of variables in the model are increased. The high value of the F-statistic implies that the data is very much from the same group. The results from the coefficients table imply that the difficulty to open the commodity was the only item that affected the preference of our product. This has a direct implication to the management that they should reconsider the packaging of the product to allow ease use of the product among other items. QUESTION 12 Focus groups are a form of qualitative research in which a certain group of people respond to questions in their own perceptions as well as opinions towards products and services with regard to advertisement. These questions are asked interactively in a group setting where the respondents and other participants can talk freely to other group participants. In marketing as a discipline, focus groups are very important in acquiring feedback in relation to new product and services among other topics that are involved. The focus groups allow organizations to discuss and test the new products before they are available to the general public. Focus groups are very accurate and can provide very accurate information. They are relatively cheaper than other methods of marketing research. Instead of gathering respondents from all over the country, the researcher in this case opted to use radio because it reaches so many people at a time and they can be able to respond through phone call as well as text messages. This method allows for disclosure of similar experiences among people affected by the same problem. In view of the procedural implications of focus groups, they can lead to information that may be invaluable about the way the market may view the product. The focus may agree the quality if the product is good but generally the response of the market in terms of purchase may be inappropriate. The responses may hold back depending on the moderator. They may be subjected to fear depending on the attitude of the moderator and the general status of the respondent. There may lack anonymity and the respondent may doubt the confidentiality of the study in terms of the individual disclosure of the respondent. Generally, the results of this type of research depend on the influence of the researcher. This may alter both external and internal validity. QUESTION 13 a. Comment and critique Focus groups are very accurate and can provide very accurate information. They are relatively cheaper than other methods of marketing research. Instead of gathering respondents from all over the country, the researcher in this case opted to use radio because it reaches so many people at a time and they can be able to respond through phone call as well as text messages. This method allows for disclosure of similar experiences among people affected by the same problem. In view of the procedural implications of focus groups, they can lead to information that may be invaluable about the way the market may view the product. The focus may agree the quality if the product is good but generally the response of the market in terms of purchase may be inappropriate. The responses may hold back depending on the moderator. They may be subjected to fear depending on the attitude of the moderator and the general status of the respondent. There may lack anonymity and the respondent may doubt the confidentiality of the study in terms of the individual disclosure of the respondent. Generally, the results of this type of research depend on the influence of the researcher. This may alter both external and internal validity. The sample selected for this research may strongly affect validity. b. The results of focus group interviews can be used for constant comparison. The moderator takes note of the things he/she observes during the interview. The observations are then reexamined for analysis. The review and analysis depends upon the results obtained by the researcher in the FGI. These findings are then used to improve and make the market of a particular product very satisfactory. Focus groups sacrifice the reliability of the research for purposes of defending validity, both eternal and internal. QUESTION 14 Multi-item measures are measures consist of a number of ratings that combine into a single item. This scale presents constructs that can never be combined into one question or attitude. A good example of this type of measure is the he American Customer Satisfaction Index (ACSI). The multi-item measure has several characteristic features that are unique to the specific measure. It is one-dimensional because they measure one attribute. They are reliable because they produce similar results and in general, these measures are easily generalizable. Single item measures have been used in the past to represent global constructs such as job satisfaction. Studies show that single item measures are correlated with longer measures. For example, single value measure of the lie of a product may be correlated with a multiple item measure that may be measuring the same constructs. Other studies indicate that single item measures cannot represent some constructs. References Zikmund, G, and Babin, Barry, J. 2010, Exploring Marketing Research, 10th edn, South Western/Cengage Learning. Coakes, S.J., Steed, L.G., and Ong, Clara (2010), SPSS : Analysis without Anguish, Version 17.0 for Windows, Milton, Qld. John Wiley & Sons Read More