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Marketing Research Question Paper
Marketing Research
Course:Bachelor Of Commerce
Institution: Strathmore University question papers
Exam Year:2011
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STRATHMORE UNIVERSITY
FACULTY OF COMMERCE
BACHELOR OF COMMERCE
END OF SEMESTER EXAMINATION
MKT 3202: MARKETING RESEARCH
DATE: 20th March 2011 TIME: 2 Hours
QUESTION ONE (COMPULSORY)
Read the case below and answer the questions that follow
HAND-TO- HAND AGAINST PALM
An electronics and personal computing firm has been watching closely the success of the
Palm Pilot and seeks to introduce a competitive devise, beta named ‘Organize my Life!’
or OML for short. The OML marketing manager has gathered some intelligence on the
Palm Inc. sales and believes that, for all its success, some potential markets are being
underserved.
Hand -held personal digital assistants (PDA) were introduced unsuccessfully at first by
Apple in 1993. Some analysts argue that the Newton, Apple’s market offering, was not
clearly positioned to the consumers; others argue that it was simply ahead of its time.
3Com’s Palm Computing focused the PDA, limiting its functionality to calendars and
appointments, contact directory information, and to-do-lists so as to convey its
technological benefits more clearly to the potential user. In only five years, Palm
achieved more than two thirds of the global market to support this claim. Over 5.5
million devices have been sold, and the sales continue to show strong growth (sales are
expected to reach 13 million in the next two years.)
Competitors offer Internet access, including wireless variants, but the OML group has
data that indicate only 17% of PDA users would pay extra for this feature- these users
already have PC Internet access and view the PDA’s access version as redundant, and
worse, likely to be slow. OML is considering conducting research to investigate whether
other features, such as voice recognition capabilities, stereo quality sound systems for
downloading music, video and digital photographic abilities, and global positioning
mapping (‘u r here’) software would be valued.
In addition to seeking data on features, OML is considering the attractiveness of this
technology to another segment. Its data indicate that the typical Palm Pilot user is a male,
in his early 40s, college educated, and a white collar professional with a relatively high
income. OML is interested in serving the university student market. An important
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concern is that a typical student has fewer discretionary funds than the current PDA
purchaser profile. Thus OML marketing discussions revolve around questions like these:
what is the price beyond which students would be less inclined to purchase this devise? If
the devise were priced at say $299 or less, which features would be prohibitive to
continue to offer? What are students’ priorities in terms of the functions and features they
would like to see bundled into the PDA? Would the benefits sought depend on whether
this devise were targeted to undergraduates ‘in general’ compared with engineering and
computer science students and compared with MBA graduate students? How do we
choose the features to offer and the segments to target?
Questions
a) What is the OML marketer’s decision problem? (3 marks)
b) What is (are) the research problem(s)? (3 marks)
c) Describe the current customer of the Palm Pilot. How does this customer differ
from the one being targeted with the OML product? (6 marks)
d) Explain five ways in which the marketing manager made use of secondary
sources of data? (5 marks)
e) What precautions should the manager have taken when using these sources of
data? (4 marks)
f) Recommend to the marketing manager at least three different types of primary
data he may need to collect. (3 marks)
g) Briefly explain the three major types of research designs; which type is appropriate
for the above research problem(s). (Support your answer) (6 marks)
QUESTION TWO
a)‘Businesses that intend to become successful at attracting and retaining customers in
the competitive business world turn to marketing research to obtain information to make
decisions that may sometimes have far reaching consequences’. Examine this statement,
highlighting the major uses of marketing research to a marketer.
(10 marks)
b) ‘Colgate- Palmolive Company has observed that sales of its toothpaste brand increased
when coupons were sent out. However, retailers such as Nakumatt and Uchumi
supermarkets also gave the company better shelf space when the coupon was out. Thus,
the company cannot tell if it was the coupon or the shelf-placement that caused sales to
increase. In order to ascertain which of the variables is the cause of increase in sales, an
investigation needs to be conducted.’
You have been approached to recommend the most appropriate research design to use for
the study. Explain clearly your response and briefly highlight how you would conduct the
study. (10 marks)
QUESTION THREE
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a) Select a possible marketing situation that may require investigation and use it to
discuss the major steps of the marketing research process. (15 marks)
b) Which one of these steps is the most important one? Support your answer
(5 marks)
QUESTION FOUR
a) Using relevant marketing examples, clearly distinguish between the following terms:
i) marketing research brief and marketing research proposal
ii) longitudinal study and cross sectional study
iii) qualitative data and quantitative data
iv) projective techniques and ethnographies
v) geo-demographic data and geo-demographic classification
(10 marks)
b) ‘A marketing research firm is hired by a soft drinks company to conduct taste tests to
determine why its newly introduced soft drink brand has not captured the expected
market share. The researcher first conducts preliminary investigations and establishes that
the problem is not one of taste but of image and product positioning. The client is
however convinced that the problem is a taste problem and wishes that a survey study is
conducted. The researcher must weigh the relative high profit margin of taste test
research against the less lucrative survey research needed to answer the client’s question.’
i) What should the research firm do? (4 marks)
ii) Explain any two codes of conduct that guide the practice of marketing research, which
marketing researchers should be aware of. (6 marks)
QUESTION FIVE
Write short notes on FOUR of the following (20 marks)
i) Marketing intelligence systems and Decision support systems
ii) Focus group interviews and In-depth interviews
iii) Sampling methods
iv) Criteria for construction of a good questionnaire
v) Types of Questions
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