Individual Research Proposal for Toothpaste Brand - Market Research Company

Evaluation of Written Communication Skills (10%)

 Concise writing style and professional presentation are expected. Use size 11 font. Include a title page and number the sections and subsections. Please submit in a Word Document for the proposal and pdf for the survey.This assessment is split into two parts: Part A contributes to 60% of the assessment, involves creating an individual research proposal. Part B contributes 30% of the assessment and involves creating a customer service survey built in the Qualtrics platform.Evaluation of Written Communication Skills (10%)Note: In this course Assessment 1,  Part 1, the research proposal is also used to evaluate your written communication (WCOM) skills for AACSB accreditation purposes. Written Communication skills accounts for 10% of the overall assessment 1 total. See the Marking Guide for how you are evaluated on written communication.Part A: Individual Research Proposal (60%)TaskFor Part A of this assessment you will hypothetically take the role of a research associate working for a market research company. To secure contracts for the company you need to write a formal research proposal that will clarify a client’s research problem, form specific research question(s), design and justify an experiment to answer the specific research question, explain and justify the method and procedures, outline the costs (budget) and provide a timeframe for the research project. We discuss this in lectures as stages of the research process (see Exhibit 1.3, page 30, Zikmund et al. text).The proposed research will not need secondary or qualitative research. Proposal SectionsThe proposal has seven (7) main sections; some sections will have sub-sections. 1.Background and Marketing Managerial ProblemThe hypothetical client for the research proposal is any company that manufacturers toothpaste and distributes their brand mostly in supermarkets and pharmacies throughout
2 New Zealand. You may choose any brand in the toothpaste category. Your task is to invent a marketing managerial problem with the toothpaste brand; one that will require an experiment conducted in your company’s Virtual Reality (VR) Test Store to solve the invented problem. The VR Test Store is a market research tool used to provide information on consumers’ behaviour in a simulated shopping environment. While the VR Test Store simulates a supermarket shopping experience in the virtual world it is not a real on-line store. Instead, it provides a virtual experience where a test subject uses a virtual supermarket trolley to select products and checkout while wearing head goggles in an empty room. There will be a lecture that informs you more about the capabilities and procedures in a VR Test Store.An example of a research marketing management problem a toothpaste brand manager might face is that their competitor has colourful, new eye-catching packaging and since its introduction to the market your client’s toothpaste sales have declined. Other potential challenges in a FMCG market (and suitable for testing in a VR store) might relate to shelf positioning, labelling, price, size, colour, or outdated branding. Amount of content – 2 paragraphsIn this section briefly describe the company and toothpaste brand you have chosen in one paragraph subtitled ‘Background’ If you use material from a company’s website make sure you paraphrase and reference, or if it is a direct quote then it should have “......” quotation marks and correct referencing format. NOT referencing this material means you risk breaching academic integrity. Here you might want to include an image of the toothpaste brand (with a reference of the source) or display the toothpaste’s brand image on the front cover of the proposal.A second paragraph describes the marketing managerial problem.2.Research Question(s)Once you have invented the marketing managerial problem the company/brand managers are experiencing write specific research question(s). Examples of appropriate research questions and how to turn a marketing management research problem into a specific research question are provided in lectures/workshops and the Zikmund et al. textbook (Chapter 2,  pages 40-53, especially useful is Table 2.2 on page 50).Amount of content - sentencesYou might have only one,  or two research questions but each question is no more than a sentence. 3.Research Design Since you are using the VR Test store you will need to briefly explain the test store to client. The type of research design you will use is casual (see page 25 Chapter 1, Zikmund et al. textbook). More specifically you are undertaking an experiment and the term for the people in your sample is subjects. Keep your design simple and use only two variables. One variable is independent, and you will have one dependent variable. The material you need here will
3 be covered in lectures and in the Zikmund et al. textbook (Chpt 1 & 7). Make sure you explain and justify your design choices in this section. Amount of Content 3-4 paragraphsExplaining the VR Test store is one paragraph. Justifying its use and the type of design might be another paragraph. Discussing the variables is another paragraph. Therefore, this section is 3-4 paragraphs.4.MethodPossible sub-headings: Sample size and frame, Sample selection method, Sample recruitment and compensation, and Fieldwork (how you will conduct the experiment/collect data)  Procedures  These method sub-sections are discussed in lectures and found in the Zikmund et al. textbook, Chapters 1 & x). In this section you will need to explain how you will conduct the research while considering the ethical code of conduct set out by the Research Association of New Zealand.  Amount of Content – this section should not take more than two pagesEach sub-section might use one or two paragraphs. The amount of space used will also depend on how concisely you w