Transferring Needs into Solution Strategies - Assignment Example

MARKET RESEARCH Name: Institution: Course: Lecturer: Date: Scenario 1 Urban renewal authority is a company that deals with accelerating urban development. The company research is carried out to determine how and why the residents selected the suburb and the things they like and do not like about the suburb plus the energy use in the suburbs. The target respondents for this research are the residents in Lochiel Park as they are the resent inhabitants in the suburbs as well as the general population in the area. To get useful information for the Urban Renewal Authority, qualitative research would be useful. Qualitative research would be useful so as to get insights and understanding of the population in the area (Altshuld, J., and Witkin, R., 2000, 180). This would be achieved through in-depth interviewing of the people living in the suburbs. The in-depth interview would be guided by a discussion guide to keep the interviewer on track when asking the question. For a good interview process, the interviewer should speak less so as to give the interviewee time to express their opinion. This method of data collection would be most suitable to collect data to be used in the research. However, there are some problems that could be encountered using this method. In-depth interviews could result to too much unwanted information. It is also costly and time consuming and therefore it might be expensive for the company. To prevent this problem, the interviewees should have a structure of questions that they could use to interview the respondents and use a small sample size to reduce costs of the interview process as it would require a small number of interviewers. In-depth interviews are one on one. A sample of the total population of approximately one thousand people could be interviewed. This number would be a good representation of the total population (Padgett, D., 2003, 312). Selection of the population to be interviewed should be random regarded they are residents from the suburbs. The research objective of the in-depth interview is to find the preferences of people living in the suburbs. Understanding their interests would be useful to the Urban renewal authority as it would help give the company an idea of what the populations living in the suburb want. This would guide their development plants so that they consider the interests of the people when they market and design future developments in the region. Using in-depth interviews is a slow process as a single interview can take up to 2 hours for interviewing one individual. Hence to quicken this process, several interviewers have to be recruited to help quicken the interviewing process. The period for data collection can be a month so as not to delay the development projects by Urban Renewal authority. The interview process can be done in the respondent’s home so that they are comfortable during the interview process. The interview process can be recorded so that the interviews can be reviewed to get useful information to help accomplish the objectives of Urban Renewal development. Scenario 2 The research is aimed at improving the quality of the South Australian Ambulance Service. This research will help the ambulance in tracking the quality of service that they offer according to the people they transported in the past. The target respondents for this research are therefore the patients who have used their ambulance services. To get information that would be useful in the research, quantitative research is needed. Carrying out a survey on the quality of service would be useful in the research. Questionnaires administered to the respondents would help get useful data needed for the research (Lofland, J., and Lofland, H., 1995, 130). Questionnaires can be administered by an interviewer or completed by an individual. Questionnaires that are answered without supervision can be sent through mail, online or at hospital counters. Questionnaires administered with the help of an interviewer can be administered face to face or through telephones. The best way to administer the questionnaire in this case would be through telephone interviews. This is because the South Australian Ambulance Service keeps the contact information for the patients. Hence, calling patients’ would be easy and sure way of ensuring that they get information that is useful in the research by filling out the questionnaire on phone. The sample size suitable for this method of data collection would be around 250 people. This is because administering questionnaires using telephone services could be expensive depending on the network charges of the operator. There could also be issues with connections hence extra costs would be needed. The duration of a single telephone interview could be around 15 minutes per call to reduce the costs incurred by the Ambulance Company. Selection of individuals should be random as long as they have used ambulance services. The period for collecting data that is useful in the research should be a week as telephone interviews are a fast way of filling questionnaires as opposed to other methods that may be slow because the respondents would procrastinate (Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J., 2006, 130). This could be the case in sending questionnaires through mail. Respondents may also disregard questionnaires sent by mail hence getting data for research may be a problem when using this method. Another suitable way off administering the questionnaires would be by putting the questionnaire forms in hospitals where patients who have used the services can get the forms, answer the questions and drop leave them in the hospitals where the ambulance service company can get the information and use it for the research. The types of questions that are usually administered in questionnaires vary. There are open-ended questions and closed-ended questions. This method is a good way of getting research information as the questionnaires can be easily reviewed to get useful research information. Scenario 3 The third scenario is a research carried out to determine the people buying from the stores and the items that are being bought. The reasoning behind the choice of a particular product is another target of the research. This would help the company in determining what products popular with the customers to ensure customer satisfaction and the items that would be considered when restocking. The target populations for this research are the store customers. Qualitative and quantitative research, method would be useful in collecting this research information. Thos would be achieved by using personal interviews (Creswe, J., 2013, 210). The people buying items in the store could be interviewed to find out their favorite products and if they are purchasing the products for their use or use by other individuals. Interview process that would be suitable in getting the research information is one-on-one interviews on the customers. The sample of the people being interviewed should be approximately 100 individuals. 100 people would represent the total population of the store well as it is a huge number in this case. The interview process could be done in two weeks so as to take time in gathering the research information. The selection of the individuals being interviewed should be random. Interviewing customers would be a suitable process as the objective of the research is determining the people buying from the retail stores items that are mostly sold, people who use the product and the reason behind purchasing of the products. Hence, interviewing the buyer is appropriate. This research information could be useful in many aspects of the stores objectives. Questions that could be included in the interview process would include: What product do you like most from the store? How many times in a month do you buy the product? Is the item for personal use? If not who is the person who uses this item? Why do you buy this product instead of other similar products? These questions are suitable as they are the objectives of the research. The problem with this method is it may be time consuming hence some customers may not have time to be interviewed (Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J., 2006, 178). This may be a problem as the interview process may take a longer time that was previously planned. This would be a problem as data collection should be timely so that the research is done on time. The information from the respondents who are interviewed could be recorded do that they can be contacted for further questions if necessary. Interviewers should also not be one sided in the interview process. They should let the respondents give their opinion without inclining their questions towards certain products. This way, the information from the interview would not be bias. References Altshuld, J., and Witkin, R., 2000. Transferring Needs into Solution Strategies. Newbury Park, CA: Sage. Creswe, J., 2013. Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches (Crewell, Research Design: Qualitative, Quantitative, and Mixed Methods Approaches). Newbury Park, CA: SAGE Publications, Inc; Fourth Edition edition. Lofland, J., and Lofland, H., 1995. Analyzing Social Settings: A Guide to Qualitative Observation and Analysis. Belmont, CA: Wadsworth Publishing Company. Padgett, D., 2003. The Qualitative Research Experience. Chicago: Thomson Learning; 1st edition Trochim, W., & Donnelly, J., 2006. The Research Methods Knowledge Base. United States, U.S: Atomic Dog; 3 edition Read More