Research Plan - Starbucks Company
At the heart of good marketing research is a strong research plan.
NOTE: For this assignment, you are only creating the plan for the research that you would potentially conduct. You are not being asked to administer the survey, to collect the data, or to apply the statistical tests.
Instructions: Your project must incorporate the following elements:
• Company and Organizational BackgroundIdentify a company and provide a brief description of the goods and services it provides, its size, and the locations where it does business.
• Management-Decision Problem or Business Issue Identify a business issue for this company that requires a managerial decision. You can be inventive here.
o Fully describe the business issue-what is the issue; who or what does it affect and how, where, and when does it affect them? Some examples of a suitable business issue to write on include: whether the company should invest research money in new product development; whether the company should expand to a new geographic area; or whether the company should benchmark its performance against its competitors. Don't be limited by this list. You can use any other business issue that requires marketing research.
• Hypotheses
o Clearly state the hypotheses to be tested.
• Research Objectives and Question
o Based on the problem or issue identified above, identify the research question that needs to be answered.
o Explain why this is the appropriate question.
o What is the hypothesis to be tested?
• Research Approach
o Describe the research approach that should be taken to best test your hypothesis and answer your research question.
o Be sure to describe how you would gather your data for this research project (e.g., a survey, focus group, intercept interviews or other methods).
o Discuss how and where the research would take place, the sample size, and who would conduct the research.
o Identify any potential ethical issues associated with the research.
• Survey and Interview Guide
o Design a survey with a minimum of 10 questions.
o Explain the reason for including each question. Describe the type of scale you are using. Describe the benefits of the data you expect that each question will produce.
o Design a face-to-face interview guide with three questions that would be used in a qualitative approach.
• Statistical Tests
o Identify the types of statistical tests you would use on the collected data.
o Explain why you would use these tests.
• Challenges
o Identify any potential shortcomings in your research approach and any ethical concerns.
o Describe how you would handle each of the above.
Paper Requirements
• Your Portfolio Project should be 10-12 pages long, not including the required title or reference pages, and formatted according to APA Requirements.
• Include a minimum of five scholarly sources (the CSU-Global Library is a good place to find these sources).
• Employ in-text citations and references that adhere to APA formatting.
• Include title and reference pages.