BRM

FORMULATION OF THE RESEARCH PROBLEM &

THE RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

STARTING POINT FOR ANY RESEARCH

Strong Urge / Reason Why

Hence, VITAL to Understand the Management’s Objective & the

Decision Problem that is necessitating Research
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

RESEARCH PROCESS
MANAGEMENT DECISION
MANAGEMENT OBJECTIVE (M.O.)
PROBLEM (M.D.P.)

RESEARCH PROBLEM STATEMENT

(R.P.S.)

RESEARCH OBJECTIVE/S (R.O.)

RESEARCH DESIGN (R.D.)

DATA ANALYSIS

RESULTS & OBSERVATION

CONCLUSION &
RECOMMENDATION TO CLIENT
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P v/s M.O

MO MDP

To increase the Share price How to increase the Share

of the company stock price of the company stock?

To decrease Employee Don’t know why there is

Turnover Employee Turnover?

To increase Sales of the How to increase sales of the

Brand & to ensure X% MS Brand & ensure X% MS?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.O – M.D.P. – R.P.S.

MO MDP RPS

To increase the Share How to increase the What Factors are

price of the company Share price of the leading to instability in
stock company stock? Share price?

What Factors are

To decrease Employee Don’t know why there
leading to Employee
Turnover is Employee Turnover?
Turnover?

To increase Sales of the How to increase sales What aspects are

Brand & to ensure X% of the Brand & ensure contributing to the
Mkt Share X% Mkt Share? success of a Brand?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. v/s R.P.: EXERCISE

Set A

RP
What is the awareness & purchase intention of health conscious
consumers for Organic products?

MDP
What should be done to increase the customer base of organic
products in the domestic market?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. v/s R.P.: EXERCISE

Set B

MDP
How to reduce turnover rates in the BPO sector?

RP
What is the impact of shift duties on work exhaustion & turnover
intention of the BPO employees?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. v/s R.P.: EXERCISE

Set C

MDP
How to improve the delivery process of Hearing Aids in India?

RP
How does Brand X / Industry Leader manage its supply chain in India
/ Asia?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. v/s R.P.: EXERCISE

Set D

RP
What is the satisfaction level of the company with the existing
security services vendor? Are there any gaps? Can they be effectively
handled by the vendor?

MDP
Should the company continue with its existing security services
vendor or look at an alternative?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. v/s R.P.: EXERCISE

Set E

RP
What have been the leadership initiatives & performance record of
Mr. ABC & Ms. XYZ?

MDP
Whom should the company choose as its next Managing Director –
Mr. ABC or Ms. XYZ?

RP
Can a leading aggressive private sector bank accept a woman as its
leader?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set A

RP
What is the sales of department stores in a certain region?

MDP
Which department stores require more focus from our side?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set B

MDP
Should we continue to run a particular XYZ TV Program?

RP
What is the Effectiveness of different TV Programs?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set C

RP
Which Sales Territories are the best & worst in terms of sales
potential?

MDP
Do we require different strategies for different Sales Territories?
Which Sales Territories require greater marketing push, which Sales
Territories requires special attention? Are there any Sales Territories
that we should not focus too much attention on?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set D

MDP
Should an Ad Campaign that has run for the past 2 years be
changed?

RP
Is the Ad Campaign being currently run still having the desired
impact on prospective customers?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set E

RP
Is the new Juice flavour being liked by consumers?

MDP
Should we continue to market the new juice flavour?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.D.P. R.P.
Set F

MDP
Should the Compensation Package be changed to motivate the Sales
Force perform better?

RP
How significant is Compensation to a Sales person as a motivating
tool? How happy is the Sales Force happy with their Compensation
Package?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

CASES
Case 1: Employee Satisfaction Study
America’s leading and diversified auto company wanted to
understand employee’s experiences of working at the company.
They wanted to know a Manager’s communication & information
consumption. As the management was changed, they wanted to
understand the employee responses towards it. They also wanted to
test the developed message statements

RESULTS
Employees thought that the Co. had a good reputation. The Co. had insufficient
manpower & young employees felt that they were not given opportunities to
explore ideas & thoughts. Important decisions regarding the Co. are not
communicated to lower management levels. Messenger & Emails were observed
to be the ways of communication. Horizontal, One-way & Vertical were observed
to be the Channels of Communications. Lack of Communication was mostly
observed between higher levels & lower
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

CASES
Case 2: Customer Service Satisfaction Study for Auto giant
India’s leading and diversified Auto business house wanted to
identify key Satisfaction Attributes in servicing/repairs of the cars
and obtain customer rating of dealer performance on all parameters
and identify gaps needing improvement
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

CASES
Case 3: Customer Sales Satisfaction Study for Auto giant
India’s leading and diversified Auto business house wanted to
identify key Satisfaction Attributes in sales process of the cars and
obtain customer rating of dealer performance on all parameters and
identify gaps needing improvement
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

CASES
Case 4: Consumer Research for Japanese Apparel Co.
A major Japanese Apparel Co needed an entry strategy for the new
market in Asian countries. They wanted to understand fashion
tastes of their target and potential target. They also wanted to
understand what clothes their target & potential target were
wearing
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

CASES
Case 5: Consumer Research for Fairness Cream
Indian women are very conscious about their skin and appearance.
One of our clients in Skin care product wanted to understand India’s
metro city women and gauge their behaviour towards various skin
products
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

DIFFERENCE BETWEEN M.O & R.O.

Management Objective Research Objective
To Achieve a Management To Study
Goal or a Purpose To Find
To Understand
To Conduct a BTL Activity To Interpret
or To Analyze
To Achieve a Sales Target of To Evaluate
Rs. 50 Lakhs by Q3, ‘17
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

M.P. RESEARCH QUESTIONS

MDP RESEARCH Qs

How familiar are consumers with

various brands of computers?

What attitude do consumers have

What are the Best ways a towards various brands of computers?
firm can communicate
with Potential Buyers of
How important are the various factors
Laptop consumers? for evaluating the purchase of a laptop?

How effective are the communication

efforts of competition in terms of
message recognition?
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

SELECTING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM

Overdone Subject
Vague Issues

Other Key Criteria

Basic Familiarity with the research subject
Feasibility of doing the Research
Subject Significance, Apt Qualifications, Costs, Time

Hence, a Preliminary study is often imperative

BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

Finding Fault in the R.O.

To study the buying behaviour of young women towards Cosmetics at
Hypermarkets

Problems
The phrase buying behaviour very subjective – several aspects of Buying
Behaviour such as Knowledge, Attitude, Perception – which have to be
taken selectively
‘Cosmetics’ is a vast category – includes a number of products within
Where the study is to be conducted not specified – Mumbai / AI?
There are several Hypermarkets – using the word ‘selective’
(hypermarkets) would frame the RO better

‘To study a few specific aspects of buying behaviour of young women such as
knowledge, attitude and perception towards certain cosmetic products such as
Skin Creams, Lipsticks & Nail Polishes at selective hypermarkets in Mumbai’
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

Finding Fault in the R.O.

To understand why productivity in Japan is so much higher than in India

Number of ambiguities such as:

What sort of productivity is being referred to?
With what industries is the same related?
With what period of time is the productivity being talked about?

In view of all such ambiguities, the given statement or the question is

much too general to be amenable to analysis
‘To study the factors responsible for the higher labour productivity in Japan’s
manufacturing industries during the decade 1971 to 1980 relative to India’s
manufacturing industries’
‘To study the extent to which labour productivity in Japan from 1971 to 1980
exceeded that of India in respect of 15 selected manufacturing industries’
‘To study the factors responsible for the productivity differentials between
the two countries by industries’
BRM Formulation of Research Problem & Hypothesis

Golden Rules of Writing R.O.

R.O.s should be crisp, simple & crystal clear (no vagueness)
R.O. Should be a complete statement all by itself
We always start an R.O. with the word ‘To’ (E.g. To Identify
& rarely use the word ending with ‘ing’
R.O.s should not be repetitive
R.O. should not contain any subjective terms