Georgia State University J. Mack Robinson College of Business MARKETING RESEARCH - MK 4200 Fall 2024 Section 008 (CRN 80540) | Section 010 (CRN 80541) | Section 300 (CRN 879638) Instruction modality: Asynchronous Online Instructor: Kevin Giang Barrera Department of Marketing Email: kgiangbarrera1@gsu.edu Class Meets: On: N/A At: N/A In: N/A Office Hours: On: By appointment At: By appointment In: Webex Link Webex Link Information: Kevin Barrera's Personal Room https://gsumeetings.webex.com/meet/kgiangbarrera1 Course Description: Market trends as well as consumers wants and needs have become more diverse, fragmented and demanding in recent times. With such diversity in consumer segments along with the higher market competitiveness, it becomes more challenging and relevant for firms to develop accurate marketing tactics that help them optimize marketing budgets and increase marketing strategy effectiveness. Marketing research is a key business component to help firm managers make data-driven decisions and develop fact-based marketing strategies. In summary, Marketing Research is a systematic process that involves planning and designing research studies to collect and analyze data and present results to support marketing related decision-making processes – a very important skillset to remain competitive in the job market landscape. Prerequisites: i. ii. MK 3010 (Marketing Management) and MGS 3100 (Business Analysis). Basic knowledge of Microsoft Excel is required. (IMPORTANT: This is not an Excel course. If you are unfamiliar with Excel, please take a (free) tutorial on the internet to familiarize yourself with the basics of Excel. You can check the resources to learn or refresh your Excel skills in the last section at the end of the syllabus) Course Objectives: a. b. c. d. e. Familiarize students with the concepts of problem formulation and decision making in marketing research. Empower students with the right tools to implement marketing research in the marketplace. Implement the concepts of research design through data collection from primary and secondary sources. Equip students with the right statistical tools to do basic thorough data analysis using Excel. The methods that will be covered are: 1. Hypothesis Testing (e.g., T-test, Chi-Square test, Z-test) 2. Correlation Analysis 3. Regression Analysis Inculcate the habit of critically analyzing business problems and coming up with managerially relevant solutions. Learning Outcomes: By the end of this course, you will be able to: a. Understand and use concepts in Marketing to identify business problems and translate them into research questions. b. Identify various types of data used in marketing research and ways to collect them. c. Compare different data analysis techniques and choose appropriate techniques for the problem at hand. 1 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary. d. e. Use basic statistical methods to analyze and visualize data, interpret results, and infer insights from data. Design and execute a standard marketing research project with managerial relevance. Class format & expectations: Asynchronous Online Please note a couple of recommendations that will help you succeed in this course: i. Watching the lectures is compulsory! You have chosen an online asynchronous format for this class. This means that it is the students’ responsibility to make sure they have watched the lecture videos and seek clarification with the instructor if not completely clear about some concepts after watching the lectures. Please note that each student’s online progress will be counted as attendance. Simply clicking on the videos to show completion of the activity will not count as “full attendance”. iCollege keeps track of the actual time that students invest in watching each video. Do not expect full attendance points if you do not watch the videos throughout the semester. ii. Communication is key! Keep yourself updated! Major communications about the class will be sent over email and will also be posted via iCollege Announcements. Please check both your school e-mail and iCollege regularly. You have opted to enroll in an asynchronous class which makes you fully accountable for consuming and being up to speed with the class content. iii. How to communicate with me? Do NOT reply to my iCollege e-mail account, as I may not receive your e-mail. Please use my GSU e-mail address: kgiangbarrera1@gsu.edu iv. Attention & Participation! It is expected that each student participates and interacts actively by using the available online resources such as discussion boards. Participation will be measured and graded relative to the average participation of the whole class. If your participation is within the average of the class or above, you will receive full credit. If your participation level is below the average of the class your grade will be prorated accordingly. v. Appropriate Equipment! You should have your laptops/desktops/tablets with access to internet and MS Excel to be able to perform some of the practical applications of the lecture concepts, especially those related to the statistical analysis of data. vi. Discussion Boards! Each week we will have a new discussion board on iCollege for students to post their comments and questions about the material from the lecture videos. Participation on discussion boards will count towards your final grade. Just reading the posts is not considered active participation. As this method of instructional delivery does not replicate a physical class environment in which the instructor can interact directly with the students, the only way to assess your engagement and participation with the course is through the online components. vii. Virtual office hours (by appointment). If you would like to meet virtually, please send me an email request in advance and I will set up a Webex link at a time convenient to both of us. Recommended Textbook: We will use Marketing Research (13th Edition, 2019) by Aaker, Kumar, Day, and Leone. (ISBN 978-1119497639) as a reference book. Please note that the core material of the course also comprises the instructor’s own content which has been summarized in the format of videos. Buying the book is not mandatory, but watching the videos is required and necessary to succeed in this course! 2 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary. Performance Assessment: Grades for this course will be determined as follows: Evaluation Item Attendance (class progress based on lecture videos engagement) Participation on Discussion Boards Out of class assignments (3 x 5% each) Exam 1 Exam 2 Final Exam Final Term Project (Group) TOTAL Due dates Weekly progress Weekly See course schedule Percent 10% 5% 15% 10% 10% 20% 30% 100% Grading Policy: The final letter grade will be awarded on a +/- basis as per the distribution below. Percentage ≥96% 90-95% 87-89% Grade A+ A A- Percentage 84-86% 80-83% 77-79% Grade B+ B B- Percentage 74-76% 70-73% 67-69% Grade C+ C C- Percentage 60-66% <60% - Grade D F - Course Engagement Policy • • Students must always inform the instructor over email if they cannot actively engage with the course due to valid reasons. If there is a medical emergency that prevents you from engaging with the course (more than 2 classes), you will need to provide appropriate documentation (e.g., letter from a doctor). GSU has a new process for students seeking excused absences through the Dean of Students Office. Please submit documentation to https://deanofstudents.gsu.edu/student-assistance/professor-absence-notification/. I will then be notified by the Dean of Students of any excused periods of absence. Participation in Class Discussions & Activities: - Students will be graded on the following: • • Answering and asking questions in discussion boards Completing weekly learning activities such as watching the lecture videos Participation in Discussions Boards (Weekly) – Each week, there will be a new discussion board for students to engage with each other, and with the instructor. This is the forum where you can post your comments and/or questions related to the course material, answer the questions raised by your classmates or post any relevant/interesting articles for the class to read. Students will be graded depending on their participation on the discussion boards in iCollege. The evaluations will be based on the following activities: • Asking relevant questions on discussion boards that show that the student has gone through the lecture material. • Answering questions from fellow classmates on discussion boards • Initiating interesting discussions or sharing interesting articles (with links) relevant to the course objectives and lessons previously discussed. • Reading other students’ posts ONLY is not considered an active participation and engagement. Participation on Discussion boards for the week is due every Sunday at 11:59 PM (unless otherwise instructed). Exams (x2) – There will be two Exams worth 20% (10% each) of the total grade. Format would include True/False and Multiple-Choice Questions and involve critical thinking and application of concepts. Memorizing definitions and concepts will not be sufficient to obtain a good score in the exams. Assignments (x3) – assignments testing your understanding of the concepts learned in class. The assignments are designed to help you implement concepts and tools learned in class. Description and details of the assignments will be posted on iCollege accordingly. All assignments are required to be submitted electronically on iCollege in the corresponding folders. 3 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary. Final Exam (x1) – The exam will test your knowledge of the various marketing research concepts and statistical methods for data analysis. Final Term Project (x1) – The objective of this assignment is to provide you with the opportunity to implement all major tools and concepts learned in this course. You will have to think about a marketing research idea and the related research questions. The problem has to be about a business problem, and you will need to intelligently analyze the data to come up with managerially relevant solutions. This will be a group project and only one project report per group is required. This should be a fun project and a great opportunity to learn Marketing Research hands on. Please note that the evaluation of your contributions will follow a 360 degree assessment, in which each group will be evaluated by the instructor and by the other students, and your individual contribution will be evaluated by your group peers. I would advise students not to count on a free ride! The weight of this project is major. Participate! Academic Honesty and Conduct Policy: • • • • • • • As members of the academic community, students are expected to recognize and uphold standards of intellectual and academic integrity. The Policy on Academic Honesty assumes as a basic and minimum standard of conduct in academic matters that students be honest and that they submit for credit only the products of their own efforts. The ideals of scholarship and the need for fairness require that all dishonest work be rejected as a basis for academic credit. They also require that students refrain from any and all forms of dishonorable or unethical conduct related to their academic work. Students are expected to and must do ORIGINAL work for all assignments, including exams. You can use Grammarly or Turnitin software (available on iCollege) to compare your work. Non-compliance will result in consequences as per the University Academic Integrity policies. Students are responsible for their own conduct and instructors are required to report all cases of dishonesty (e.g., plagiarism, cheating) to the proper university officials. Careful and ethical use of computing resources is the responsibility of every user. In case a student has some special needs, kindly inform the instructor before the start of the course. The material or assignments are designed with consideration for everybody. The selling, sharing, publishing, presenting, or distributing of instructor-prepared course lecture notes, videos, audio recordings and related materials is strictly prohibited unless explicit permission is granted in advance by the course instructor. This includes posting on websites such as Chegg, Course Hero, OneClass, Stuvia, and similar sites. Engaging in this type of behavior is considered an act of academic dishonesty. All academic conduct policies and procedures can be found in the Code of Conduct. Please keep in mind that academic dishonesty can lead to undesired entries on your academic records and thus inhibit your eligibility for certain professional jobs (e.g., federal government positions) Diversity, Inclusion, and Respect Statement: It is my intent that students from all diverse backgrounds and perspectives feel safe in our course online environment, that students’ learning needs be addressed both on and off class, and that the diversity that students bring to this class be viewed as a resource, strength and benefit. It is my intent to present materials and activities that are respectful of all diversity including gender, sexuality, disability, age, socioeconomic status, ethnicity, race, and culture. Your comments (on discussion board posts and in class) related to the class and content will be encouraged and appreciated. Please let me know ways to improve the effectiveness of the course for you personally or for other students or student groups. Accommodations Statement Students who wish to request accommodation for a disability may do so by registering with the Office of Disability Services. Students may only be accommodated upon issuance by the Office of Disability Services, of a signed Accommodation Plan and are responsible for providing a copy of that plan to instructors of all classes in which an accommodation is sought. https://access.gsu.edu/ Student Basic Needs Statements: Any student who faces challenges securing their food or housing and believes this may affect their performance in the course is urged to contact the Dean of Students for support. Furthermore, please notify the instructor if you are comfortable in doing so. This will enable GSU to provide resources that may be available. The Embark program at GSU provides resources for students facing homelessness. 4 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary. Tentative Course Plan for Fall 2024 August 26th – December 09th Book Chapter Week Date Topic 1 Week 1 Aug/26 Class Introduction + Marketing Intelligence (MR): A decision-driven perspective MR in Practice and as a Process Ch 2 & 3 Research Design & Implementation Ch 4 Secondary Sources of Marketing Data Ch 5 2 Week 2 Sep/02 3 Week 3 Sep/09 Standardized Sources of Marketing Data & MR on the Internet Information Collection: Qualitative and Observational Methods Comments Ch 1 Provide Group Members & Choose Brand by Sep/08 Ch 6 & 7 Ch 8 Exam 1 Monday Sep/16th 4 5 Information from Respondents: Issues in Data Collection and Survey Methods Attitude Measurement Week 5 Sep/23 6 Week 6 Sep/30 7 Week 7 Oct/07 OCA 1 due by Sunday Sep/22 Ch 11 Questionnaire Design Ch 12 Experimentation Ch 13 Exam 2 Monday Oct/07th You can start at any time between 03 and 07PM. Week 8 Oct/14 9 Week 9 Oct/21 10 Week 10 Oct/28 Ch14 Sample Size & Statistical Theory Ch 15 Sample Size & Statistical Theory (cont’d.) Ch 15 Fundamentals of Data Analysis Hypotheses Testing: Basic Concepts and Tests of Association Ch 16 Hypotheses Testing: Means and Proportions Ch 18 Hypotheses Testing: Means and Proportions Ch 18 Correlation and Regression Analysis Ch 19 Ch 19 Week 11 Nov/04 Correlation and Regression Analysis (contd.) 12 Week 12 Nov/11 Group Project Time – Doubt Clearing Session 13 Week 13 Nov/18 Group Project Presentations 14 Week 14 Nov/25 Week 15 Dec/02 Week 16 Dec/09 Chapters 8-13 Sampling Fundamentals 11 16 Ch 9 & 10 Introduction to Qualtrics: Tutorial 8 15 Chapters 1-7 You can start at any time between 03 and 07PM. Week 4 Sep/16 OCA 2 due by Oct/13. Group Project Proposal due by Oct/20. Ch 17 OCA 3 due by Nov/03 Group Project Proposal check: At this point you should have collected the data for your project! All project presentations due by Nov/17 Group Project Report due by Nov/24 Thanksgiving Break (No class) Final Exam Review Final Exam on Tuesday December 10th 2024. You can start at any time between 03 and 07PM. Calculator Required NOTE: This course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; some deviations may be necessary. The lecture videos corresponding to each class will be available on iCollege at the beginning of each corresponding week. The exam dates and times are final (no exceptions). Please plan accordingly. 5 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary. Additional Resources: • • Basic Tasks in Excel: Link LinkedIn Learning Courses: o Excel Essential Training (Office 365/Microsoft 365) by Dennis Taylor o Learning Excel: Data Analysis by Curt Frye Data analysis software: We will be analyzing data using MS Excel. Install analysis toolpak in Excel using the link below for Windows users: https://support.office.com/en-us/article/Load-the-Analysis-ToolPak-6a63e598-cd6d-42e3-93176b40ba1a66b4?ui=en-US&rs=en-US&ad=US For Mac Users, start with the link below: 1. http://www.analystsoft.com/en/products/statplusmacle/ 2. Please read through the instructions 3. Click the Download Link 4. Download the Application 5. Read the Getting Started with StatPlus:mac document 6. To install drag the StatPlus:mac folder to the Applications folder 7. To start using StatPlus:mac: Launch your copy of Excel, create or open your workbook, and make any necessary changes. When you are ready, click the StatPlus:mac icon in your Dock (or double-click the StatPlus:mac icon in your /Applications folder if you have not launched it yet). 6 Note: The course syllabus provides a general plan for the course; deviations are always necessary.
