THE UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA AT GREENSBORO
BRYAN SCHOOL OF BUSINESS AND ECONOMICS
Department of Marketing, Entrepreneurship, Hospitality and Tourism
Fundamentals of Marketing Research
MKT 422-01 & 01D (online)
Spring 2015
Professor:
Dr. Nathan McDougle
Phone:
318 680-4455
Email:
thevanguardbandit@yahoo.com
Contact times: see contact instructor section below
Course Description: The objective of this course is to introduce the fundamentals of marketing research. By
the end of the course, students should be able to define a business problem and to plan a research project that
will suggest alternative solutions.
Required Course Textbook: Marketing Research, by Alvin C. Burns and Ronald F. Bush, Seventh Edition,
Prentice-Hall, 2013 *Note: In order to complete course assignments, you will be required to use SPSS
software. It is available on the virtual lab or available for purchase.
*Contact Instructor. Feel free to contact me at any time within reason. I welcome text messages from students
and will be glad to help as much as I can. I am also available to call. If I do not answer, leave a message and I
will try to get back to you as soon as I can. Also, feel free to email at the above email address. It is my personal
account and thus checked fairly regularly.
*Schedule. The following is a tentative schedule for the upcoming semester. You will be expected to work
through the material on your own, so make sure of these assignment dates and be prepared. I will try to remind
you during the week that things are due through Blackboard, but if you don’t hear from me, it is still due
according to this schedule unless I email or make a note about changes.
Week
1
2
3
4
5
6
7
Start Date
1/12
1/19
1/26
2/2
2/9
2/16
2/23
8
3/2
9
10
11
12
3/9
3/16
3/23
3/30
13
14
15
16
4/6
4/13
4/20
4/27
Readings
Chapter 1-2
Chapter 2-3
Chapter 3-4
Chapter 5-6
Chapter 6-7
Chapter 7-8
Chapter 910
Chapter 1011
Chapter 12
Chapter 13
Chapter 14
Chapter 15
Chapter 16
CLASSES
Assignment (Due Friday unless otherwise specified)
Research Assignment 1
Exam 1 (1-4)
Integrated Case Waypoint (1-4)
Research Assignment 2
Exam 2 (5-8)
Integrated Case waypoint (5-8)
Exam 3 (9-11)
Spring Break
Integrated Case Waypoint (9-11)
Exam 4 (12-13) on Wednesday
Integrated Case Waypoint (12-13) due on Thursday,
Spring Holiday on Friday
and Research Assignment 3
Exam 5 (14-16)
Final Case Submission
END
Grading Scale:
Points
Exams X5
Research Assignments
Integrated Case waypoints
Integrated Case Turn-in
Total Points
100 each
30 each
10 each
40
670
98-100 – A+
92-97.9 – A
90-91.9 – A88-89.9 – B+
82-87.9 – B
80-81.9 – B78-79.9 – C+
72-77.9 – C
70-71.9 – C68-69.9 – D+
62-67.9 – D
60-61.9 – D<60 – F
Rounding of grades to the next higher letter grade (i.e. making an 89.7 into a 90) is at my discretion. The grade
will not be rounded only in cases where the student has 1) been overly disrupted or disrespectful to me through
communication, 2) consistently been late with assignments, or 3) asked me to reopen more than 1 exam for
dubious reasons.
Exams: Examinations will be multiple choice tests given through Blackboard. Each exam will be available for
an entire day, usually Friday, from midnight to midnight. Students will have 100 minutes to finish the exam
once they begin. Students with special needs need to contact me with the information as soon as possible.
Students who cannot possibly take the exam in the time frame allotted must contact me ahead of time to defend
their reason for missing. If accepted, the exam will be opened for them at a different time. In the event of any
computer problems during the exam that prevents the student from completing it, the student should contact the
instructor immediately
Research Assignments: Three research assignments will be given during the semester. Each will turned in
through the dropbox on Blackboard OR the email address marketingturnin@yahoo.com (only for turn in
material; I will not check it often enough for correspondence).
 Research Assignment 1 - Find 5 schools that specialize in higher education in Marketing Research that
aren’t mentioned in the book as well as 5 jobs not mentioned in the book that can capitalize on that
education. Feel free to be creative on this. Turn in your answers in a Word document with the following
format: School Name – Program name offered – website (X5). Company – Job – Quick description of
job.


Research Assignment 2 – Observe someone’s shopping behavior in a store (Wal-Mart or something
similar is preferable). Write a 3 page summary (Arial 12 pt double spaced) of their characteristics,
purchases, and behaviors, as well as your speculation as to their intention for that visit.
Research Assignment 3 - You work for a software development company. Your newest product is a
tablet-based point-of-sale application that will allow salespeople to traverse the store and efficiently help
customers by having access to the customer information and inventory databases. However, your
business customers have been complaining about the new program. Create a 10-question survey that will
evaluate your customers’ problems and get closer to the heart of the problem.
Integrated Case and Waypoints: At the end of each chapter, the book has an “integrated case” that details one
company’s business endeavors. At each waypoint, you need to have the case answers for those particular
chapters. The case answers need to be done in paragraph form, preferably 2-3 pages (Arial 12 pt font double
spaced). You will be graded on your reasoning more than your ability to get the answers right or wrong. Each of
these case studies ties together, so keep the files together. When the semester is complete, I expect all of your
case studies to be emailed to me in a single Word file which shall be graded as a whole unit. I am not grading
for professionalism, but please do try to make it easy for me to follow and read. I will take points off for
frustratingly difficult to understand submissions.
If you wish to keep all of them in one large file, that should not be a problem. Just make sure to properly label
each chapter at the top. Headings for this file should only be your name and the chapters involved, thus no more
than 2 lines in the heading. Also, the files do not need titles or the questions restated explicitly. You will lose
points for merely giving your quick answers to the questions and not giving any explanations.
SPSS Student Assistant: The book also comes with access to the SPSS Student Assistant, which is a handy
program to try to help you get through some of the difficulties of dealing with SPSS for the first time. It’s a
simple program to follow, and you will come out of it knowing more about SPSS with each chapter completed.
At the end of each are a series of questions. Most of them are fairly easy and quick, but it is the easiest way to
give you, the student, some guidance on how to work with SPSS. If you cannot get it to work or just do not feel
you need the extra help, that is perfectly fine. However, it is there if you want to give it a try.
Rules for Submissions: Late assignments will only be accepted with approval from the instructor.
Assignments LATE for ANY REASON will be penalized 10% for each day late. In the case of emails that
“don’t go through,” you will have to forward to me the ORIGINAL email that had your assignment, not
just send it to me again.
THE INSTRUCTOR RESERVES THE RIGHT TO MODIFY THIS SYLLABUS
WITH NOTICE TO THE STUDENTS
Academic Misconduct:
University policy with respect to academic misconduct will be strictly enforced. Academic misconduct will not be
tolerated. Cheating on exams, plagiarism, or copying another student’s assignments will result in a grade of zero. In
accordance with the Academic Honor Code, students pledge the following: “Being a student of higher standards, I pledge
to embody the principle of academic integrity.” Any attempts at cheating, plagiarism, or facilitating academic dishonesty
will be penalized. Please be aware that misrepresentation of an excused absence is grounds for academic misconduct.
Accommodation for Special Needs:
Students needing testing or classroom accommodations based on a disability are encouraged to discuss those needs with
the professor as soon as possible. Required documentation from the DSS office (e.g., appropriate DSS memorandum)
should be provided.