Integrating Research Methods with Marketing Decisions Proposal

Integrating Methods with Marketing Decisions - Research Proposal Example It is mostly qualitative and unstructured. Being qualitative in nature, it uses a small focus group instead of a larger population or interviews that are in-depth, or projective techniques. In the focus group method, a small group of people is interviewed on the topic. These people are free to interact with one another. This is a hurdle for the researcher as he has no control over the group. Many times it drifts towards irrelevant matters. The data also gets influenced by others. Another problem is that it is researcher dependent. The questions framed by the researcher lead in one particular direction. Projective techniques are indirect techniques that help understand the underlying beliefs without disclosing the actual aim of the research like word association, sentence completion , story completion, cartoon tests, role play etc. In-Depth Interviews are conducted on one-to-one basis. This helps in getting in-depth information and also to get to the hidden issues. Unlike survey interviews it may not have the same set of questions for all the participants. It is a time consuming process that may get influenced by the bias of the researcher. There are three techniques used in these interviews - One is Laddering, in this the questions start off with the external objects and slowly get to internal attitudes or feelings. Another way is Hidden issue questioning. In this the researcher concentrates on deeply seated beliefs and feelings. Third one is Symbolic Analysis. Here the researcher asks opposite questions and tries to understand their symbolic meanings In-depth Interviews are the best suited way for this research as it will help understand the underlying beliefs and attitudes that form the basis for buying a vehicle. This is the information needed by the company to remodel Taurus.Descriptive research methodDescriptive research gathers data and then interprets it by tabulating and organizing the data. Description is used as a tool in organizing the data. It is very helpful to find out what is the best solution to the given problem with many variables. Once the research question is fixed, the descriptive research method can be decided upon. The methods of data collection could be surveys, interviews, observations and portfolios. Surveys draw conclusion based on the questionnaire and help to identify the factor that needs change.These surveys can be done through written questionnaires or personal interviews or telephone interviews. Interviews are most time efficient and help in getting in-depth information by creating a rapport with t he participants. But it is time consuming and requires a lot of time to be spent in interviewing and in traveling for interviewing. In comparison, telephone interviews are less time consuming and less expensive but there is no visual input. Mailed questionnaire is even faster but has very low response rate and requires a very simple survey design.Observational research methods are based on direct observation that can give lot of