MKT Marketing Tools Term Project - Winter, 2014

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1 MKT Marketing Tools Term Project - Winter, 2014 Term Project Requirements (1) The objective of this assignment is to provide you an opportunity to apply some of what you have learned to a "real world" problem or situation provide me an opportunity to evaluate your application of concepts to practice, and your ability to articulate ideas in a clear and well-reasoned manner. impress upon you the collaborative and team oriented nature of marketing research. (2) Your assignment is to develop a research proposal for the class client, the Mikesell s Snack Food Company. Your proposal should be: typed (double-spaced with an eleven- or twelve-point font and one inch margins all the way around the page). Headings and subheadings make a paper easier to read. Their use is strongly encouraged. limited to a main text of no less than fifteen pages. Appendices, references and, of course, the title page are not included in this space limitation. well-written, with proper grammar and usage. reflective of a level of effort and quality reasonably expected of upper-division students attending a reputable university, such as the University of Dayton. Additional Comments Several class periods will be provided for your teams to meet and work on the project although meetings outside of class will almost certainly be necessary. Assignments for your groups will be made to direct some but not all of your efforts. In addition to my evaluation of your overall project, each of you will evaluate the other members of your team. These evaluations will be factored into your grade, so all team members must make a contribution. Grades are assigned to individuals, not the team. Therefore, you cannot expect to piggyback on the efforts of others and receive the same rewards. I expect you use your imaginations in the preparation of this report. If you have ideas on how to enhance your project, please share them with me. If you need additional information or assistance, please see me. The time to ask questions is before problems arise.

2 The primary criterion I use to evaluate papers is the amount and quality of thinking they reflect. For every statement you make in your project, imagine you hear me asking, "Why?" Then, answer the question. I want to know why your team elects to do the things it does. Winter, 2014 Class Client: Mikesell s Snack Foods (1) Overview. Mikesell's Snack Food Company is interested in identifying consumer segments that offer opportunities for the company's long-term growth. Of particular interest are segments of consumer in the millennial generation, the 79 million US consumers who are 18 to 34 years of age. Understanding the equity of the Mikesell's brand among consumers from various segments is a critical component in assessing the segments' attractiveness. Brand awareness and brand meaning develop in large part through the firm's direct marketing messages along with consumers' experiences and reference group influences. Brand responses and brand relationships are more personal and reflect consumers' cognitive and affective reactions to the brand and the extent to which they identify with the brand. Brand equity strengthens through the development of awareness, meaning, responses, and relationships. (2) Decision Problem. In their local (Dayton) and regional (Ohio, Indiana, Kentucky and Illinois) geographic markets the Mikesell s brand is believed to be widely recognized and to have a strong following of loyal snack food consumers. Their long-standing relationship with Mikesell s potato chips and their positive feelings about a hometown business, producing quality chips that have been a part of their families for generations may explain the loyalty of these consumers. To accomplish the Company's long-term growth objectives and to leverage its brand equity, what segmentation strategy, targeting which consumer segments, should Mikesell's pursue. Thus, the decision problem may be thought of as the selection of one or more of of three possible market segmentation strategies. Market development strategy targeting segments of consumers in the millennial generation Market development strategy targeting segments of consumers who are not part of the millennial generation Market penetration strategy targeting segments of consumers where brand awareness already exists and brand meaning aligns closely with the Mikesell's name (3) Sample. Mikesell s will acquire a database of names through internal and external sources, including commercial sources. They should reside in areas served by the Mikesell s company and should have retail access to Miksell s brands.

3 (4) General Research Questions. To collect information needed to inform the decision problems outlined above, research should address the following general research questions: 1. What are the dimensions of brand equity associated with the snack foods category and with Mikesell s snack foods? 2. How do the dimensions of brand equity associated with the category and with Mikesell s differ from competitors' brands among consumers in the millennial generation and among consumers in other segments of the snack foods industry? 3. Given an understanding of the current strength of brand equity, which consumer segment (or segments) offers the greatest potential for Mikesell's long-term growth? 4. What are the characteristics of respondents, including demographic information and various psychographic elements? You will use these general research questions to formulate a series of more specific implied research questions that will form the basis of your conceptual research hypotheses and your questionnaire. Term Project Outline To follow is a detailed outline of the sections your term project should contain. The outline provides a useful format for organizing and reporting your efforts. While students have historically followed this outline for their projects, you should feel free to rearrange it in any way that fits your sense of organization and logic. My main concern is that all the requirements for the project are met. Individual questions of formatting or style are secondary. (1) Section One: Marketing Situation Analysis The goal of this section is to better understand the marketing environment in which Mikesell s operates and the means by which it markets its products. The section provides needed background into the remainder of the research project, and especially your strategy project. At a minimum, your situation analysis should cover the following: Describe Mikesell s company. What is its mission and how does it operate to achieve that mission? Elaborate on Mikesell s marketing offerings. Frame those offerings in terms of the marketing mix. Think broadly and creatively about the marketing mix variables and the benefits the product provides. Identify Mikesell s key marketplace competitors. What benefits do the key competitors offer that Mikesell s also offers? What benefits does Mikesell s offer that competitors do not?

4 Explain the economic, social, and industry factors pertinent to the snack foods industry. Use secondary data to provide context to local, regional, and relevant national trends. Explain what is meant by the term millennials. What are the characteristics of this group? Relate those characteristics to snack food behaviors. (2) Section Two: Research Question Formulation, Hypothesis Development, and data Analysis Plan Using the general research questions given above, write implied research questions for each of the four general questions. Hopefully during the process of formulating research questions, you will think of dozens of implied questions for each of the general questions. Your final report should contain only those implied questions that have been included in at least one conceptual hypothesis. Questions that did not make the cut should not be included. You should aim for approximately ten implied questions per general question, at a minimum. You may include comments or discussion of how and why you asked certain questions, though this is not required. Prepare your table of hypotheses. This will be the lengthiest part of your paper. It will contain entries for all research questions and conceptual hypotheses. You should have a complete and unique entry for each conceptual hypothesis, though most implied questions and questionnaire items will be repeated many times throughout the table. When completed, the table will provide a complete list of all the hypotheses you propose to test, the research questions that comprise each conceptual hypothesis, the questionnaire items used to collect the data that answer the implied questions, and the appropriate statistical procedures to empirically test the hypotheses. Below is an example entry for the table. Conceptual Hypothesis Respondents younger than 25 will be generally less concerned about health issues than those over 35. Implied Research Questions What is the respondent s age? Generally, how concerned about health issues is the respondent? Questionnaire Item (with item number) 32. Please indicate your age. (Scale for ages) 15. In general, how concerned are you with your physical health? (Scale Not At All Concerned to Very Concerned. Data Type Ordinal or Ratio Ordinal of Ratio Statistical Procedure correlation All conceptual hypothesis should have table entries similar to the example above. Because many implied questions will be used in numerous conceptual hypotheses, some hypotheses will be very similar to each other. This is fine. The key is to make sure that every implied question is part of at least one conceptual hypothesis.

5 (3) Section Three: Completed Questionnaire. The third section of your project should contain a finished questionnaire that could be given to a sample member to complete. The questionnaire should have a title, instructions, and proper ordering of items. The questionnaire does not need to be laid out as a professional graphic artist would. However, it should be complete in every other way. (4) Additional Material. Your project should also include a reference section to cite any work you use. You may use any accepted bibliographic style you like. In addition, be sure to include any other materials you used to prepare the project. This can include such materials as photographs or summaries of interviews you conduct.