IGNOU MBA MS-66 Solved Assignment

Ans.1 A)

Importance of Marketing Research in the current business environment

1) Sales Analysis

 Much research is done in the following areas which are broadly referred as sales analysis,
 Measurement of market potential/demand projection,
 Determination of market characteristics;
 Market share estimation;
 Studies of business trends.

In fact, some of the more detailed studies to be carried out under the broad ambit of sales analysis could be as follows, The types
of consumers that constitute the potential market

 The size and location of the market;

 The growth and concentration of the market over certain period of time,
 The competitive picture for the product;
 The major strategies of leading competitors with respect to price, offerings distribution etc.
 The purchase habits of key market segments;
 What is the pattern of pre-purchase deliberations made by the consumers?
 Who are involved in the decision making?
 What are the roles of different members in the decision making?

II) Sales Methods and Policies

Marketing research studies are also conducted with a view to evaluate the effectivness of present distribution system. Such
studies are used in establishing or revising sales territories.. They are also helpful in establishment of sales quotas, design of
territory boundary, compensation to sales force, physical distribution and distribution cost analysis etc.

III) Product Management

Every marketer tries to formally or informally utilize information to manage the existing and new products. It examines market
feedback about competitive product offerings. Also, some companies make use of marketing research to form market segments
through choice of alternative bases. Companies also carryout different research studies to assess consumer feedback to new
products

IV) Advertising Research

Media research: Three National Readership Sunveys (NRS) have so far been conducted in India. These studies have basically
estimated the readership of leading newspapers. The last NRS has also assessed qualitatively, readers feedback on the editorial
content. Moreover, some marketing research have evaluated the relative effectiveness of different media in specific product
fields, and in context of achieving specific tasks such as creating brand awareness or a particular product benefit.

Copy research: Advertising agencies have been regularly engaged in this activity where they test out alternative copy designs by
obtaining the feedback from to consumers. Studies of advertisement effectiveness - Advertising agencies regularly make use of
marketing research studies to assess and monitor effectiveness of different advertising compaigns.

V) Corporate Research
Large scale corporate image studies among different target publics - They involve an assessment of knowledge about company
activities, association of company with sponsored activities and company perceptions on specific dimensions. These types of
corporate image studies are done periodically to monitor any change in image over time among different publics. Social values
research: Knowledge, attitude and practices on family planning, anti-dowry, smoking, drinking etc.

VI) Syndicated Research

Several research agencies collect and tabulate marketing information on a continuing 'basis. Reports are sent periodically
(Weekly, monthly or quarterly) to clients who are paid subscribers. Such services are found especially useful in spheres of
movement of consumer goods through retail outlets (ORG Retail Audit)

 WAYS OF CONDUCTING MARKETING RESEARCH IN INDIA

Broadly speaking, a firm can get the researchers conducted in two ways: either through its own staff or by hiring the services of
outside agencies. Some firms make use of both the alternatives. So far as the in-house research is concerned, it can be conducted
by the firm's sales and marketing staff of or else they can have specialized staff or department for conducting marketing
researches. Since the employment of specialized research staff or setting up of a separate research department entails huge
expenditure, only large firms requiring researches on a frequent basis go in for this type of organizational arrangement. Small
firms and the organizations not so frequently requiring researches prefer using their sales or marketing staff for undertaking
research studies. As and when the need arises, some of the sales and marketing persons are picked up and assigned the research
tasks. Since these persons generally do not have specialized knowledge of marketing research and, moreover, perform side by
side the routine sales and marketing activities quality of the studies conducted by such persons remains under doubt.

The other important method of collecting information is the use of outside agencies or experts such as marketing research
organizations, advertising agencies and consultants. Seeing the increased demand for research services, many a marketing
research organization have come up in the country and help business films through provision of customized as well as syndicated
research services. When the research is tailor-made to meet the information needs of one particular client, it is known as
customized research. Since the benefit of such a research accrues to a single firm, that single firm alone bears the entire research
cost. Syndicated research, on the other hand, involves collection of a common pool of data for meeting the information needs of a
number of firms. As the results of such a study are shared among several films, it costs pretty less to a single firm. Quite often,
these studies are undertaken on a regular basis by the research agencies and the information so collected is made available to the
films on a subscription basis.

Ans. 1 B)

Relationship between Data and the Research Process:-

 Data

In dealing with any real life problem it is often found that data at hand are inadequate, and hence, it becomes necessary to collect
data that are appropriate. There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which differ considerably in context of money
costs, time and other resources at the disposal of the researcher. data can be collected by any one or more of the following ways:

(i) By observation: This method implies the collection of information by way of investigator’s own observation, without
interviewing the respondents. The information obtained relates to what is currently happening and is not complicated by either
the past behavior or future intentions or attitudes of respondents.

(ii) Through personal interview: The investigator follows a rigid procedure and seeks answers to a set of pre-conceived questions
through personal interviews. This method of collecting data is usually carried out in a structured way where output depends upon
the ability of the interviewer to a large extent.
(iii) Through telephone interviews: This method of collecting information involves contacting the respondents on telephone itself.
This is not a very widely used method but it plays an important role in industrial surveys in developed regions, particularly, when
the survey has to be accomplished in a very limited time.

(iv) By mailing of questionnaires: The researcher and the respondents do come in contact with each other if this method of survey
is adopted. Questionnaires are mailed to the respondents with a request to return after completing the same. It is the most
extensively used method in various economic and business surveys.

(v) Through schedules: Under this method the enumerators are appointed and given training. They are provided with schedules
containing relevant questions. These enumerators go to respondents with these schedules. Data are collected by filling up the
schedules by enumerators on the basis of replies given by respondents.

 Research Process

Before embarking on the details of research methodology and techniques, it seems appropriate to present a brief overview of the
research process. Research process consists of series of actions or steps necessary to effectively carry out research and the desired
sequencing of these steps.

1. Formulating the research problem: There are two types of research problems, viz., those which relate to states of nature and
those which relate to relationships between variables. At the very outset the researcher must single out the problem he wants to
study, i.e., he must decide the general area of interest or aspect of a subject-matter that he would like to inquire into.

2. Extensive literature survey: Once the problem is formulated, a brief summary of it should be written down. It is compulsory for
a research worker writing a thesis for a Ph.D. degree to write a synopsis of the topic and submit it to the necessary Committee or
the Research Board for approval. At this juncture the researcher should undertake extensive literature survey connected with the
problem. For this purpose, the abstracting and indexing journals and published or unpublished bibliographies are the first place to
go to.

3. Development of working hypotheses: After extensive literature survey, researcher should state in clear terms the working
hypothesis or hypotheses. Working hypothesis is tentative assumption made in order to draw out and test its logical or empirical
consequences. As such the manner in which research hypotheses are developed is particularly important since they provide the
focal point for research

4. Preparing the research design: The research problem having been formulated in clear cut terms, the researcher will be required
to prepare a research design, i.e., he will have to state the conceptual structure within which research would be conducted. The
preparation of such a design facilitates research to be as efficient as possible yielding maximal information.

5. Determining sample design: All the items under consideration in any field of inquiry constitute a ‘universe’ or ‘population’. A
complete enumeration of all the items in the ‘population’ is known as a census inquiry. It can be presumed that in such an inquiry
when all the items are covered no element of chance is left and highest accuracy is obtained.

6. Collecting the data: In dealing with any real life problem it is often found that data at hand are inadequate, and hence, it
becomes necessary to collect data that are appropriate. There are several ways of collecting the appropriate data which differ
considerably in context of money costs, time and other resources at the disposal of the researcher.

7. Execution of the project: Execution of the project is a very important step in the research process. If the execution of the
project proceeds on correct lines, the data to be collected would be adequate and dependable. The researcher should see that the
project is executed in a systematic manner and in time.

8. Analysis of data: After the data have been collected, the researcher turns to the task of analyzing them. The analysis of data
requires a number of closely related operations such as establishment of categories, the application of these categories to raw data
through coding, tabulation and then drawing statistical inferences.
9. Preparation of the report or the thesis: Finally, the researcher has to prepare the report of what has been done by him. Writing
of report must be done with great care keeping in view towards the end of the main text, researcher should again put down the
results of his research clearly and precisely. In fact, it is the final summing up. At the end of the report, appendices should be
enlisted in respect of all technical data.

Ans. 2 A)

Sometimes, the entire population will be sufficiently small, and the researcher can include the entire population in the study. This
type of research is called a census study because data is gathered on every member of the population. Usually, the population is
too large for the researcher to attempt to survey all of its members. A small, but carefully chosen sample can be used to represent
the population. The sample reflects the characteristics of the population from which it is drawn.

 The data collection through sampling definitely involves a lower cost as compared to census. In. a marketing research
project aiming to study the buying behavior of households in Delhi for consumer non-durable items, the cost of interviewing
3000 households would be much less than interviewing all the households in Delhi, Therefore, from a managerial points Of
view, a sample's economic efficiency is very attractive.
 A sample saves time. Managers have', a time frame in which they are supposed to take decision on the basis of whatever
information they can gather during that time period. They cannot wait till the information obtained on the basis of complete
enumeration is available. In the above example, if data is to be collected on all the households in Delhi, we would require
more time to print additional questionnaires, more interviewers will have to be trained and further the data analysis would
require more time.
 It is not at all essential that the accuracy 1of information may be enhanced by taking a complete enumeration. Suppose we
want to estimate the average price of Camps Cola charged by restaurants in Delhi at a point of time.
 A sample is better in situations in which measuring of a particular element from a group would destroy the elements or
render them useless after examination. Let us consider the example of testing a photographic film. To test the quality of the
film, the film has to be exposed which in fact destroys it for further use

 STEPS IN THE SAMPLING PROCESS

Step 1: The primary step is to define the population. It should be defined in terms of sampling (i) the elements, (ii) the sampling
units, (iii) the extent, and (iv) the time.

Step 2: The next step is to specify the sampling frame. It has already been explained - in detail in the previous section..

Step 3: The third step is to choose an appropriate sampling design for selecting the same .The sampling design describes the
procedure by which a sample is selected. There are two types of procedures namely non-probability sampling procedures and
probability sampling procedures. Under probability sampling procedure, each element has a known chance of being selected in
the sample.

Step 4: Once we have decided the procedure by which sample would be selected, the next step is to determine how large sample
should be taken. A detailed discussion on the determination of size of the sample will find a place.

Step 5: The interviewers who are to go to field to collect actual data need very clear and accurate instructions as to how to do this
job. The sampling planning is therefore not complete until these instructions are prepared and handed over to the investigators.

Ans. 2 B)

As researchers, we need to be clear about the goals of any specific research study. This will help us avoid spending time and
effort doing things that do not advance these goals. Maxwell and Loomis (2003) have described five particular goals for which
qualitative studies are especially suited:

(a) understanding the meaning of events, situation, experiences, and actions of participants
(b) understanding the role of context on the behaviour and action of participants
(c) exploring unknown phenomena in order to establish new theories
(d) understanding the process that leads to occurrence of the phenomena
(e) explaining causal relations between events and actions
(f) providing understandable results and theories, and establishing their credibility
(g) evaluating the proposed theory in order to strengthen it
(h) engaging in collaborative or action research with participants

 METHODS OF CONDUCTING QUALITATIVE

RESEARCH

1. Individual ‘Depth’ or ‘Intensive’ Interviews The in-depth interviews could be classified as:

a) Non-directive interview

b) Semi-structured or focused interview.

In a non-directive intend: - v, the respondent is given maximum freedom to respond in a manner that he wishes to, within a
reasonable limit of relevancy to the topic under discussion. However, the interviewer retains the initiative in the interview
process; else the focus of the interview would be lost. Thus, with this technique, the respondent is given a chance to freely
express his ideas and thoughts, which acts as an important feedback to the company regarding the company's' products/service.

2. focus-Group Discussion

There are broadly two ways in which a group discussion can be conducted:

a) Brain-Storming: In such a method, there is no moderator for the group, and the group freely expresses its ideas on the given
topic. The ideas could be absolutely abstract, but then this would help in generating new product ideas and also better ways of
conducting a particular business etc. In this, use is made of tape recorder to record the group discussion, video-taping of
proceedings is also done in order to record the facial expressions of the, participants, as also the intensity of their feelings.

b) Focused Group: Discussion: In such a method, the group is given a topic and asked to discuss the topic. A moderator would
also be involved in order to ensure that the group 'discussion remains relevant and does not go off the track. The moderator could
stop the, discussion between time intervals to find out what conclusions are being drawn by the group after each time interval.

Ans. 3 A)

QUESTIONNAIRE

A questionnaire can help you collect information about what people do, what they have, and what
they think, know, feel or want.Five different types of information may be distinguished. Any one or a combination of these types
of information may be included in a questionnaire. Questionnaire can help in following:-

1. KNOWLEDGE - what people know; how well they understand something.

These questions ask what people know, are aware of, understand. Choices implied in knowledge
questions include correct/incorrect, accurate/inaccurate, what is accepted as true or factual. For
example:
What is the major cause of accidental deaths among children inside the home? The most effective weight loss plan includes
exercise. TRUE-FALSE. The ideal refrigerator temperature is .
2.BELIEF - what people think is true; an opinion.

Beliefs are judgments of what people think is true or false, what one thinks exists or does not
exist. Choices implied in belief questions include what did or did not happen. Questions may seek
perceptions of past, present or future reality. For example:
In your opinion, does positive self-esteem among adolescents prevent drug abuse?
Do you think that lower beef prices would increase beef consumption?

3.ATTITUDE - how people feel about something; a preference.

Such questions ask people to indicate whether they have a positive or a negative feeling about a
subject, what they value. Words typically used in attitude questions include: prefer/not prefer;
desirable/undesirable; favor/oppose; should/should not; satisfactory/unsatisfactory. For example:
Do you favor or oppose controlled calving for your operation?
Do you agree or disagree that eating beef causes heart disease?

4.BEHAVIOR - what people do Ñ may be a physical/manual or mental behavior.

Questions about behavior ask people what they have done in the past, what they are doing now, or
what they plan to do in the future. For example:
Have you ever attended an Extension program about cotton production?
Do you treat your cotton for bollworms?
How are you currently using the information gained in the food storage workshop?

5.ATTRIBUTES - what people are; what people have.

Attributes are a person’s personal or demographic characteristics such as age, education,

occupation, income. Questions on attributes ask people about who they are rather than what they
do. For example:
Where do you currently live?
How many children do you have?
What percentage of your household income comes from off-farm employment?

Ans. 3 B)

i) Selecting a Sample Size for burger king:

This example shows how to determine the number of samples or observations needed to carry out a statistical test forburget king
new cooking process. It illustrates sample size calculations for a simple problem, and then shows how to use the samp size
pwr function to compute power and sample size for two more realistic problems. Finally, it illustrates the use of Statistics
Toolbox™ functions to compute the required sample size for a test that the sample size power function does not support.
Testing a Normal Mean with Known Standard Deviation, One-Sided
Just to introduce some concepts, let's consider an unrealistically simple example where we want to test a mean and we know the
standard deviation. Our data are continuous, and can be modeled with the normal distribution. We need to determine a sample
size N so that we can distinguish between a mean of 100 and a mean of 110. We know the standard deviation is 20.

When we carry out a statistical test, we generally test a null hypothesis against an alternative hypothesis. We find a test statistic
T, and look at its distribution under the null hypothesis. If we observe an unusual value, say one that has less than 5% chance of
happening if the null hypothesis is true, then we reject the null hypothesis in favor of the alternative. (The 5% probability is
known as the significance level of the test.) If the value is not unusual, we do not reject the null hypothesis.
In this case the test statistic T is the sample mean. Under the null hypothesis it has a mean of 100 and a standard deviation of
20/sqrt(N). First let's look at a fixed sample size, say N=16. We will reject the null hypothesis if T is in the shaded region, which
is the upper tail of its distribution. That makes this a one-sided test, since we will not reject if T is in the lower tail. The cutoff for
this shaded region is 1.6 standard deviations above the mean.

Now let's turn to the problem of determining the sample size needed to distinguish between two proportions. Suppose that we are
sampling a population in which about 30% favor some candidate, and we want to sample enough people so we can distinguish
this value from 33%.
Ans. 3 B ii)
Questionnaire to obtain feedback post taste test from young college goers:-
Name:
Age :
Sex :
College/ institute name:

1 Is it your first time to watch this commercial?

A- Yes
B- No

2 Do you think the music used in the commercial can trigger you think of Burger king?

A- Yes
B- No

3 Will you think dining at Burger king is a comfortable, relax and happy dining experience after you have seen this
commercial?

A- Yes
B- No,

4 Will you try Burger king after you have seen this commercial?

A- Yes
B- No,

5 Do you have any dining experience in Burger king (including take-away service)?

A- Yes
B- No

6 How often will you have meal in Burger king per month (including take-away service)?

A- Less than 1 time

B- 1-2 times
C- 3-5 times
D- More than 5 times

7 Have you increased the time of consumption in Burger king (including take-away service) after you have seen this
commercial?

A- Yes
B- Not applicable as it is my first time watching this commercial
C- No,

8 When you want to eat burger, which restaurant will be your first priority?

A- Burger king
B- California Burger Kitchen
C- Burger Box
D- Burger Express
E- Others,

9 What is the key factor for you to choose the above restaurant?

A- Food quality
B- Price
C- Location
D- Food variety
E- Others,

10 Burger variety

A- 1
B- 2
C- 3
D- 4
E- 5

11 Have you used the delivery service of Burger king?

A- Yes
B- No.
Ans. 4 A)

Differences among, univariate bivariate and multivariate analysis

Multivariate methods analyze several variables simultaneously, unlike the more familiar univariate or bivariate methods which
deal with only one or two variables. A variable can be independent (or explanatory) in which case it is a quantity used to explain
or predict the values of other variables which are called dependent (or response) variables. Multivariate statistical inference is
often based on a data table (also called a data matrix) consisting of rows and columns. In this chapter, the rows contain the
variables and the columns represent the objects or individuals being studied. Many of the results derived in multivariate analysis
rely on matrix algebra, and it is assumed that reader has some knowledge of linear algebra in addition to being familiar with the
basic concepts of mathematical statistics.

Multivariate Distributions

The multivariate normal distribution is the most widely used distribution in multivariate statistical inference. Some of its main
properties are summarized in Section 2.1 where certain distributional results on quadratic forms in normal random vectors are
also given.

Uses for multivariate analysis include:

 Design for capability (also known as capability-based design)

 Inverse design, where any variable can be treated as an independent variable
 Analysis of Alternatives (AoA), the selection of concepts to fulfill a customer need
 Analysis of concepts with respect to changing scenarios
 Identification of critical design drivers and correlations across hierarchical levels.

Univariate analysis is the simplest form of quantitative (statistical) analysis.[1] The analysis is carried out with the description of a
single variable and its attributes of the applicable unit of analysis.[1] For example, if the variable age was the subject of the
analysis, the researcher would look at how many subjects fall into a given age attribute categories.

Univariate analysis contrasts with bivariate analysis – the analysis of two variables simultaneously – or multivariate analysis –
the analysis of multiple variables simultaneously. Univar ate analysis is also used primarily for descriptive purposes, while
bivariate and multivariate analysis is geared more towards explanatory purposes. [1] Univariate analysis is commonly used in the
first stages of research, in analyzing the data at hand, before being supplemented by more advance, inferential bivariate
or multivariate analysis.

A basic way of presenting univariate data is to create a frequency distribution of the individual cases, which involves presenting
the number of attributes of the variable studied for each case observed in the sample.[1] This can be done in a table format, with
a bar chart or a similar form of graphical representation. [1] A sample distribution table and a bar chart for an univariate analysis
are presented below (the table shows the frequency distribution for a variable "age" and the bar chart, for a variable
"incarceration rate"): - this is an edit of the previous as the chart is an example of bivariate, not univariate analysis - as stated
above, bivariate analysis is that of two variables and there are 2 variables compared in this graph: incarceration and country.

Ans 4. B) ILLUSTRATION ON 'CONSUMER RESEARCH'

Consumer Research is one area where the marketing research firms are very active. A number of market surveys are being carried
out at regular intervals both by the agencies as well as by big organizations selling consumer products. The focus of any
consumer survey is to find out `what does the consumer want?' `What are his, preference, 'his own perception of the product', `his
loyalty' etc. Consumer Research is a powerful aid in the introduction of any new product. It also provides adatabase to understand
the consumer buying behavior and enables organizations to take remedial actions regard to marketing strategies when called for.

Research Objectives
1 To assess the awareness level of the existing brands of refined oil by the consumers and also to identify the source of
awareness.

2 To analyse the consumption pattern of cooking medium with particular emphasis on refined oil.

3 To analyse the purchase pattern of refined oil in terms of 1 Kg. tin, 2 Kg. tin, etc. and also loose purchasers.

ILLUSTRATION ON ‘DEMAND FORECASTING’

Demand forecasting is perhaps the most frequently used tool of Marketing Research in India. All organizations want to forecast
the industry demand first and then applying their market share as multiplier arrive at their sales forecast. In India both long range
and short range demand forecasting studies are being undertaken fromtime to time.. However analytical models like regression
and time series analysis are not always used. Simple growth rate coupled with past average and extrapolation using graphs are the
most popular methods of making forecast in Indian organizations.

ILLUSTRATION ON SALES PROMOTION CAMPAIGN

It is not necessary that one should always use analytical tools of marketing research which a great deal of sophistication. Even
analysis involving simple arithmetic and descriptive statistics can bring the essence and lead to effective decisions. What is
important is conceptualization of the problem with clarity of thought. The present illustration will bring out this fact. Sales
promotion consists of a wide variety of tactical promotion tools of a short termincentive nature, designed to stimulate strong
target market response. Among the more popular ones are premiums, couponing, contests, incentives and deals. Sales promotion
in the marketing mix assumes greater importance due to emergence of new product, growth of self service retailing, and
eightened competition.

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