Answers for SPSS Assignments

I just wanted to let you know that all of the correct answers for the SPSS assignments you were asked to do either in class or outside of class, have been posted to the bottom of the SPSS Help page (you can find a link to this page under Course Links).

Data Analysis Assignment Due Thursday, April 7th

You have a two-part assignment, the New Freshman Study Data Analysis Assignment, due no later than the beginning of class on Thursday, April 7th.  You may work on this assignment alone or with one other person.  The first part of the assignment will require you to choose the appropriate analytical technique and the second portion will require you to run SPSS analyses (we will go over new analysis techniques that you will need for this assignment in class tomorrow) and answer questions about your output.  You will need two files to help you complete this assignment: the New Freshman Admissions Survey (Adobe PDF) and the New Freshman Student Data (SPSS data file). 

Downloading SPSS Data Files from the Course Blog

You cannot download SPSS data files posted to the course blog from Internet Explorer.  You can, however, download SPSS data files from Firefox (I have not tried it in other browsers such as Chrome or Safari).  To download SPSS data files from Firefox:

1. Right click on the link for the SPSS data file.
2. Choose Save Link As
3. When the dialog box opens if you see the File Type as HTML, make sure you change it to All Files AND be sure to save it to your H drive or some other place where you will know where it has been downloaded.

Entry Level Jobs That Pay

Guess what job field rated number one in 2010 according to a report by the National Association of Colleges and Employers?  Marketing Research!  I promise that I did not make this up just because you're in my reserach class this semester.  You can see this for yourself in the article Entry-Level Jobs That Pay (http://education.yahoo.net/articles/entry-level_high_pay.htm?kid=1FQPU). 

Next Exam & Questionnaire Assignment

The date for the next exam will be on Tuesday, March 29th (the date originally scheduled on the syllabus). Two-thirds of the students who voted in the poll taken during Thursday's class selected this option and, as I stated, the only way I would change the date would be if a majority of you wanted to do so.  Also, please remember that the deadline for the second deliverable has been extended to March 31st.  This second deliverable is to be submitted to me via email as a Word Document no later than the beginning of class on the 31st.  Late submissions will be penalized.

There is an assignment due for class on Tuesday.  The assignment (http://astanton.asp.radford.edu/mktg446/questionnaire_evaluation_assignment.doc) provides the questions to be answered.  You should use the posted survey (see http://astanton.asp.radford.edu/mktg446/survey_questionnaire_review.pdf) for the assignment.  You may work on this assignment alone or with one other person (if you work with a partner, you only need to turn in one assignment).  This assignment is to be turned in at the beginning of class on Tuesday, March 22nd (no electronic submissions will be accepted).  We will also discuss this assignment during class on Tuesday.

Quiz for Chapter 8

There will be a quiz for Chapter 8 at the beginning of class on Thursday, February 10th.

Superbowl Ad Assignment

Marketers spent between $2.8 and $3 million per 30 second spot on last night's superbowl (think about it -- that is about $100,000 per second of air time).  As with every year, there were commercials that were universally seen as hits (the Doritos Pug and VW Darth Vader ads) while others did not seem to hit the mark (Joan Rivers as the new Go Daddy girl, Kim Kardashian for Sketchers).  Some commercials created controversy (remember the Homeaway ad with the baby being squashed against the glass or the Groupon Tibet-themed ad) and others received critical acclaim (Eminem's 2 minute, $12 million Chrsyler ad promoting "imports from Detroit"). 

You can find ratings of the superbowl ads in many places -- especially with the use of social media -- but the most scientific rating approach was used by USA Today.  For the past 20+ years, USA Today has conducted the Ad Meter.  USA Today assembled 282 adult volunteers in Bakersfield, Calif., and McLean, Va., and electronically charted their second-by-second reactions to ads during the Super Bowl. Shugoll Research and Trotta Associates chose the volunteers, who used handheld meters to register how much they liked each ad (ratings could range between a low of 0 and a high of 10). A computer continuously averaged the scores. The scores shown are the highest average for each ad. 

Go to the USA Today Ad Meter page (you will see a drop down menu on the top right of the Ad Meter view box -- if it is not already set to Ad Meter, make sure you do so) and look at the results from the Ad Meter -- you can also view all of the ads here as well.  2011 was the first year in Ad Meter history that there was a tie for the top spot. 

Look at the 7 ads at the top and the bottom of the list.  Do you think the ad meter got it right for the best and worst ads?  Why or why not?  Put on your hat as a marketing professional.  In your opinion and regardless of the Ad Meter rating, which one commercial did the best job of effectively promoting the brand/product?  Keep in mind when answering this question that you should not simply be thinking about the commercial you liked best or found most entertaining -- you need to think about the commercial as an entire marketing package.  Why was this commercial the most effective?  Which one commercial, in your opinion, did the worst job of promoting the brand/product?  Why was it the least effective?

Post your responses to the blog no later than the beginning of class on Tuesday, February 8th

For Thursday, February 3rd

During tomorrow's class, we will discuss Research Design (this material is covered in Chapter 5 from your text -- which I assume you will have read before class).  If time permits, we may begin covering Exploratory & Qualitative Research Techniques (you should plan on reading Chapter 8 which covers this material before next Tuesday).  The powerpoints for both Research Design and Exploratory Research have been posted to the course blog.

I also want to give you a heads up on a couple of things.  Your next quiz, for Chapter 5, will be five minute,  in-class quiz.  It will be administered at the beginning of class on Tuesday, February 5th.  You will not be allowed to use your notes or book for this quiz.  If you are late, you will be unable to take the quiz.  Also, you will have an assignment related to the ads televised during Sunday's Superbowl.  I will post this assignment either late Sunday night or first thing Monday morning (the timing will depend upon when the pertinent web sites are available for viewing).

Semester Project Teams & Human Subjects Training Reminders

If you have any requests to make regarding team members for the semester project, you need to send me an email no later than 12 noon on Monday, January 31st.  I will not be able to honor any requests made after this deadline.  Remember, if you ask to not be placed in a group with someone, I will absolutely honor that request.  I will consider requests made regarding others you would like the work with and do my best to accommodate them -- no guarantees, though, as it is possible that individuals may receive multiple requests.

Also, please do not forget (if you have not already done so) to turn in your proof that you have successfully completed your Human Subjects Training -- you must turn this in (printed copy only) no later than the beginning of class on Tuesday, February 1st.  Instructions for completing this training can be found on page 5 of the course syllabus.  Anyone who does not turn in their proof of completing the training by the beginning of class on Tuesday, will (1) not be able to begin work on the project, (2) receive a 10 point deduction on the final project grade, and (3) may be fired by their group immediately and forced to work on the project alone.

1st Quiz

Your first quiz has been posted to WebCT.  It will be available from 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, January 20th until 9:30 a.m. on Tuesday, January 25th.  This quiz covers the introductory material -- chapter 1 and the selected pages from chapter 3.

If you have not taken a quiz on WebCT before, simply go to WebCT and choose the MKTG 446 course (for All Sections). Select Assessments and you will see the link for the Marketing Research Introduction quiz. Please be sure to save each answer before submitting the quiz. After the quiz deadline, I will release your quiz score and the correct answers to those who took the quiz so you may have them for exam studying purposes.

Your First Assignment: Privacy Concerns when Conducting Marketing Research

Observational research has become much more mainstream as companies often learn more by watching what customers do than what they say.  However, this type of research also raises ethical questions about consumer privacy.  Please read the article In Bid to Sway Sales, Cameras Track Shoppers from the NY Times.  Do these observational techniques raise ethical questions for you as a marketer?  Post your thoughts about this to the blog no later than the beginning of class on Tuesday, January 25th. -- be sure to review the instructions for posting comments to the blog under the Welcome post -- don't forget to include your name; otherwise I cannot give you credit. 

How Domino's Pizza Used Marketing Research to Remake their Pizza

Domino's Pizza used Marketing Research to find out what consumers really thought about their pizza. The feedback was used to help create a new pizza. This YouTube video shows some of the research findings and how they were used to alter the pizza recipe.




After creating the new pizza recipe, they went back to some who participated in their research to conduct a taste test of the new product as you can see in this YouTube video.

Welcome to MKTG 446!

Welcome to the Spring 2011 Marketing Research (MKTG 446) course.  I look forward to working with you this semester.

This course blog will serve as the venue for posting class materials, assignments and pertinent information/announcements.  I also hope that you will contribute to online discussions or comment on blog postings.

To post a comment, you need to do the following:

• Beneath the post, you will see the word comments underlined. Click on this.
• You will see a screen that shows Post a Comment
• Type your comment in the box.
• In the Comment As drop box, choose Name/URL.
• You will see an Edit Profile box appear. Type your name (first and last) in the Name cell (otherwise I won't be able to give you credit). In the URL cell you can type the URL to your web site if you have one -- if not, you can always use http://www.radford.edu/.  Click Continue.
• Click the Post Comment button. You will be asked to type a word to ensure you are not a site that is trying to spam the blog -- once you do this, you are done.