A Small Manufacturing Firm Has Just Experienced a Rapid Drop

Multiple Choice

A small manufacturing firm has just experienced a rapid drop in sales. The marketing manager thinks that he knows what the problem is and has been carefully analyzing secondary data to check his thinking. His next step should be to:

A) conduct an experiment.
B) develop a formal research project to gather primary data.
C) conduct informal discussion with outsiders, including intermediaries, to see if he has correctly defined the problem.
D) develop a hypothesis and predict the future behavior of sales.
E) initiate corrective action before sales drop any further.