Part 1: Propose a Marketing Research Study

Business owners and managers often identify problems they need help to resolve. In such situations, additional information typically is needed to make a decision or to solve a problem. One solution is a marketing research study based on a scientific research process. In this Assessment, you are on a quest to identify and develop a problem statement for a marketing research study.

Using the Random Scenario Generator (RSG), you will select an industry, business problem, and geographic market in which you will select a single business entity. You will be prompted to select 1 of the 3 options for each of the variables. Once you have selected from each variable category, the resulting scenario is to be the basis for your work on this Assessment. Each students scenario will be documented.

You will compose an expository paper to identify necessary information about the business problem, develop a marketing research problem statement, and propose research questions for your RSG industry by completing the following steps:

Step 1. Identify and Clarify Information Needs: You can learn a lot about a company by engaging in several different activities to define an existing problem (see pages 3234 in the textbook), including:

Conduct secondary research about your chosen organization to identify any existing problems the organization may be experiencing.
Visit the organization’s social media pages and websites to identify a problem the organization may be experiencing.
If possible, contact the organization and ask them what problems they may be experiencing related to the RSG situation.
Step 2. Situation Analysis: Once you have identified a marketing-oriented problem to research for your chosen organization, conduct a situation analysis (SWOT and/or PESTLE analysis) to critically analyze the internal and external marketing environment of your chosen organization in order to understand the complete marketing problem situation.

Step 3. Diagnose the Marketing Problem: Define the problem in a concise purpose statement. Determine the consequences of not addressing certain issues by considering the urgency or immediacy of the issue. Diagnose the marketing problem to identify the root cause and differentiate it from the symptoms of a marketing problem.

Step 4. Develop the Marketing Research Problem: Discuss the organization you chose and explain the industry in which they operate, the markets they serve, and the problem you identified and would like to study.

Step 5. Support with Research: Conduct a brief literature review using secondary research resources to uncover relevant theories related to the research problem under study. Synthesize a minimum of three peer-reviewed research resources in your writing.

Step 6. Research Questions: Formulate a minimum of three probing research questions. Interpret the problem definition and purpose of the study to aid in the formulation of the research questions. Explain how interpreting problem definition stimulates critical thinking.