Basic Marketing Research with Excel 3rd Edition by Alvin Burns,Ronald Bush

Exercise 10

Steward Research Inc.
Joe Steward is president of Steward Research Inc. The firm specializes in customized research for clients in a variety of industries. The firm has a centralized location telephoning facility, and they have a division, "Steward Online," which specializes in online surveys. However, Joe often calls on the services of other research firms in order to provide his client with the most appropriate data collection method. In a meeting with four project directors, Joe discusses each client's special situation.
Client 1: A small tools manufacturer has created a new device for sharpening high-precision drill bits. High-precision drill bits are used to drill near-perfect holes in devices such as engine blocks. Such applications have demanding specifications, and drill bits may be used only a few times before being discarded. However, the new sharpening device takes the bits back to original specifications, and the bits can be resharpened and used in as many as a dozen applications. After testing the device and conducting several focus groups in order to get modification suggestions, the client is now ready for more information on presentation methods. The project director and the client have developed several different presentation formats. The client wishes to have some market evaluation of these presentations before launching a nationwide training program of the company's 125-person salesforce.
Client 2: Aregional bakery markets several brands of cookies and crackers to supermarkets throughout California, Nevada, Arizona, and New Mexico. The product category is very competitive and competitors use a great deal of newspaper and television advertising. The bakery's vice president of marketing desires more analytics in making the promotional decisions for the firm. She has lamented that though she spends several million dollars a year on promotions in the four states, she has no analytic upon which to evaluate the effectiveness of the expenditures. Steward's project director has recommended a study that will establish baseline measures of top-of-mind brand awareness (called TOMA, this measure of awareness is achieved by asking respondents to name the first three brands that come to mind when thinking of a product or service category, such as "cookies"), attitudes, and preferences.
Client 3: An inventor has developed a new device that sanitizes a toothbrush each time the brush is used and replaced in the device. The device uses steam to sanitize the brush, and lab tests have shown the mechanism to be very effective at killing virtually all germs and viruses. The inventor has approached a large manufacturer who is interested in buying the rights to the device but would like some information first. The manufacturer wants to know if people have any concerns with toothbrush sanitization and whether or not they would be willing to purchase a countertop, plug-in device to keep their toothbrush sterile. The project director states that the manufacturer is not interested in a sample that represents the United States. They only want to know what a few hundred people think about these issues. The inventor is anxious to supply this information very quickly before the manufacturer loses interest in the idea.
For each of the three clients, suggest one or more data collection methods that would be appropriate.