Market Research for a Fluff-and-Fold Laundry Service for Students

Defining the Problem

You are considering opening a new “Fluff-and-Fold” laundry pick-up, cleaning, and delivery service for students. You are uncertain whether sufficient demand exists, and you have questions about when students will need your service most and what level of service they will require. You realize that marketing research can help solve your information needs. You must now decide how to best answer these questions.

1. Define the problem.

2. Design the research project.

3. After consulting any secondary data available, you decide to conduct an exploratory study with students in your classes. Develop open ended questions to ask other students that will provide information regarding your hypotheses.

4. Having gained some insight into the problem, you are now ready to conduct a descriptive study. You decide to conduct a survey to further test your refined hypotheses. However, you have several decisions to make regarding this study.

a. What type of sampling approach (random, stratified, area, quota) will you use and why?

b. What survey method (mail, telephone, personal interview) will you use and why?

c. How will you construct the questionnaire? Develop open ended, dichotomous, or multiple choice questions that will test your hypotheses. Remember to remain impartial and inoffensive.