50 word Response to Each Student Discussion

1.

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

Suppose McDonald’s® was considering bringing a new kind of hamburger to its stores. What kind of research would it need to do in order to have some confidence that the new product would sell well, not just in the United States, but in its locations all over the world?

STUDENT RESPONSE:

McDonald’s should use qualitative and quantitative research. Quantitative research uses graphs, tables, and charts to analyze information. Qualitative research uses consumers’ perceptions on services and products. McDonalds is doing market research to see if their new hamburger will sell. Qualitative research will give McDonalds an idea on how their customers will feel about the new hamburgers that will be sold. McDonalds can see what the consumers like and dislike about the new hamburgers. Quantitative research will help McDonalds present the numbers to corporate by using charts and graphs to see how well the new hamburgers sold or did not sale across the world. McDonalds could use other market research, but I feel this would be best.

Reference:

Business Case Studies. (2014). Types of market research – Discovering customer needs through research – Barclays | Barclays case studies and information | Business Case Studies. Retrieved from http://businesscasestudies.co.uk/barclays/discovering-customer-needs-through-research/types-of-market-research.html#axzz3puB3dfJk

2.

ORIGINAL QUESTION:

What are the trade-offs among all the types of research addressed? Suppose you are a manager of a small start-up firm with a limited budget. What kinds of research would be the most valuable? Why?

STUDENT RESPONSE:

As with everything in life there are trade offs , the same holds true for marketing research. For instance there are focus groups these are a real good picture of what people think and pretty unbiased and scientific, however they can be expensive and as a small start up may be out of your budget. Surveys can be useful but not always accurate, people want to get off the phone quickly and may not give accurate answers yet again by mail they may never get returned, the best survey would be by social media.

I feel the most valuable research would be face to face sampling, you get instant feedback and can ask follow up questions of the customer. There is very small cost involved in this type of research as well.