Resource Tyre Company –II
*Assignment 2 Question
Research Proposal Development
Prelude:
The senior marketing manager of Resource Tyre Company, Jerry Bowman assigns the two marketing officers, James and Nadia, with the task of identifying the key information necessary to support their firm’s strategy of embarking in a new market segment, i.e., the 4-wheel drive tyres. In response, James and Nadia first develop a draft of the company’s marketing strategy which focuses on branding adventurism and establishing closer links with the field operators (i.e., adventure tourism car rental firms), which was subsequently approved by Jerry.
To achieve their marketing strategy, James and Nadia further venture to identify that how they could measure the two variables ‘adventure branding’ and ‘closeness to field operators’. They determine that adventure branding is captured in terms of advertisement minutes and field operator perceptions of the company’s adventure focus on a sliding scale of 1-5. Closeness to field operators is captured by both the number of field operators in the company’s register and the number of marketing visits between the firm and the operators.
To capture data on the above measures, James and Nadia developed a questionnaire and circulated the same among a random sample of 550 field operators within each state and Northern Territory in Australia (cluster sampling technique). The resultant response rate was excellent with close to 80% of the questionnaires filled out.
Findings:
The results suggested that Resource Tyre Company is currently viewed by the market as a “dependable and professional passenger car tyre supplier” with good value for money. Entering the new market segment would, according to the results, need an additional image as a “rugged and yet stylish 4-wheel drive tyre supplier”. To build that additional image, the results offered a list of factors that Resource Tyre Company must build, which in turn, will likely help the company to generate its targeted rate of market share (in terms of a sustained quantity of sales) in the new market segment. Among others, these factors include: adventure branding, product durability, servicing quality, and driving ease. The senior marketing manager now involves Trish McGregor, the newly recruited research specialist in the team with James and Nadia and asks the three of them to develop a formal research proposal to understand the role (in statistical terms, the degree of significance) played by each of the above-mentioned variables, among others that you may like to control.
* Based on the Consolidated Learning Model©, this case-study is prepared by VG Sridharan as a topical extension of the first part prepared for Assignment 1. Intended only for the sole purposes of learning for the students of MAA753 unit at Deakin University.
Assignment Insertion: August 22, 2015 Assignment Submission Due: September 21, 2015 (before 11.59 pm)
The proposal must set out to draft the following:
1. State the research problem in a lucid paragraph of 200 words
2. Develop a theoretical framework that is relevant to the problem in about 400 words
3. Develop the relevant hypotheses in about 300 words
4. Identify the dependent, independent and other control variables in about 100 words
5. Determine and justify the choice of suitable measures for the variables in about 400 words
6. Identify what types of data are required in about 300 words
7. Describe where and how you will collect the data from, in about 300 words
8. Explain the planned sample selection process in about 300 words
9. Identify how you plan to organise the data (e.g., coding, merging) in about 300 words
10. Explain how you plan to analyse the data (software, types of tests) in about 300 words
11. Conclude by saying what you expect to learn from this project in about 100 words