Case Study:
Cass Corridor Food Co-Op
Founded in the 1960s, Cass Corridor Food Co-Op is a small, mostly organic or naturally grown fruits and vegetables retailer, located in Detroit, Michigan, on Cass Avenue. At one time, Cass Avenue and the “corridor” of streets parallel to it were a prestigious residential location for Detroit’s wealthiest citizens, but Cass Corridor fell into hard times in the 1960s when it earned a repuation as being one of the most dangerous neighborhoods in the United States. Drug sellers and users, criminals, homeless people, and gangs roamed the area until the late 1980s when demolition and rebuilding dramatically changed the enviroment for the better. Now called “Midtown” by the new residents who are trying to revitalize it as a thriving community, the area is still referred to as “Cass Corridor” by some Detroit residents who remember its ugly past. Cass Corridor Co-Op was founded to help the poor and unfortunate residents of this area during its worst times, so it is essentially a “bare bones” operation. Most of the new Midtown residents do not use the co-op, so its organizers and operators consulted with a marketing professor from Wayne State University, which is located directly north of the Cass Corridor area. The professor recommended that the co-op conduct a survey of the Midtown residents to see if its mission and approach fit the new consumers who are living there. Recognizing that Cass Corridor Co-Op operates on a meager budget, he suggests that it use the American Marketing Association (AMA) student chapter for data collection in a telephone survey as a means of holding costs down. While the Cass Corridor Co-Op folks were excited about the survey, they were skeptical of the ability of students to execute this research. The professor offered to facilitate a meeting with Cass Corridor Co-Op officials and the marketing research projects director of the student AMA chapter. When he returned to campus, he informed the AMA student chapter president of the opportunity and suggested that the marketing research projects director draft a list of the quality control safeguards that would be used in a Cass Corridor Co-Op community telephone survey in which 20 Wayne State University student interviewers would be calling from their apartments or dorm rooms.
Q1. Take the role of the marketing research projects director, and draft all of the interviewer controls you believe are necessary to effect data collection comparable in quality to that gathered by a professional telephone interviewing company.
Q2. The AMA student chapter president calls the marketing research projects director and says, “I’m concerned about the questionnaire’s length. It will take over 20 minutes for the typical respondent to complete over the phone. Isn’t the length going to cause problems?” Again, take the role of the marketing research projects director. Indicate what nonresponse problems might result from the questionnaire’s length, and recommend ways to counter each of these problems.
Your answer must be, typed, double-spaced, Times New Roman font (size 12), one-inch margins on all sides, APA format and also include references.