California State University, Long Beach
College of Business Administration
Marketing Research
Spring 1999

Dr. Mary Wolfinbarger
Tel: (562) 985-7851
E-mail: mwolfin@csulb.edu
[Home ][Class Overview, Explanation of Project and Grading]

Session 1: January 25
Introduction to the Course. Discussion of the Research Project.
Examples of Marketing Research. Marketing Research Process
Read: Chapters 1,2 and 3
For fun: Check out some marketing research reports at Roper Starch Worldwide.

Session 2: February 1
Exploratory and/or Qualitiative Methods
Read: Ch. 8
Presentation: Present the background and need for your group's "research problem."
Due: Write-up of background of problem and information needs (a page or so). What hurdles do you foresee in successfully completing the project? (For example, will it be difficult to recruit people for exploratory research (focus groups or in-depth interviews)? Will it be difficult to recruit an adequate and reasonably representative sample to complete a survey? Are there attributes/factors of interest you would like to measure that may be difficult to measure? Is the topic one that can be adequately broached with research? This is a chance to engage the class and me in a discussion that should help you focus your efforts.

Session 3: February 8 "By virtue of having been asked a question, a respondent ceases to be a real person." -- Guts
Primary Data Collection/ Questionnaire Design and Attitude Measurement
Read: Chapters Ch 5 (should help suggest some research ideas if you need one), 7, 10,11
Assignment and Discussion: Internet Marketing Research -- What is it, and what are the advantages and disadvantages? (Or, is a better question, when does it make sense to collect your research on the Internet?) Please turn in one page or less summarizing your answer to these questions. Look at any of the surveys on MSNBC.com or any other site with which you're familiar....are these samples representative?

How Valid Are Those Online Polls?
Market Researchers Embrace the Web

Some sites to check out that might aid your thinking:
Nielsen
E-land
Jupiter
Gallup
SRI's Internet Values
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February 15: Washington's Birthday -- Campus Holiday
During this week, you should be completing exploratory research (focus groups or in-depth interviews) for your project.

Does the Internet Cause Depression?

Session 5: March 1
Exam #1
Assignment: Draft of questionnaire for research project. Please bring me a disk -- I will load them on my web site so that everyone in class can review them and make comments.

Session 6: March 8
Questionnaire Workshop
Assignment: Pre-test your questionnaire during the week before class (get 10 people to take your survey and de-brief them). Briefly list the changes you are making based on the feedback you received during pre-testing. Review other group's drafts on-line. For each group, list suggestions for changes and be prepared to talk about each group's questionnaire in class. This assignment must be turned into me.
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Session 7: March 15
Sample Design and Data Collection
Read: Chapter 13, skim 14. BTW, Sudman and Blair are sampling experts. Their sampling chapters are excellent overviews.
Read: "Comparative Service Quality: German and American Ratings of Five Different Service Settings," Proceedings of the Sixth Symposium on Cross-Cultural Consumer and Business Studies. I will e-mail the class this article. (Pay special attention to sampling -- and the results.) Assignment and Discussion: Can non-random samples provide us with any useful or usable information? What kind of samples are used in the paper above? What are the advantages and disadvantages of this sample type? Are the authors' estimates and conclusions reasonable? Write up one page which addresses these questions to hand in.

Session 9: April 5
Crosstabulation/Crosstabulation in SPSS
Read: Chapters 17, pp. 473-480, Ch 18, 504-508. (Sudman and Blair provide reasonable oveviews: I will, however, be sharing the formulas and calculation methods in class for Crosstabs, ANOVA and regression to help you further conceptualize the logic behind these methods
Discussion: Crosstabulations: Conceptual Issues.
Project: You should begin analyzing your data.
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Session 15: May 17 (I assume)
Final Exam, as scheduled by the University
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