OWNERS’ BRAND PERCEPTION
RESEARCH PROPOSAL
Prepared for
Meteor Motorcycle Company
Good Stuff!
Dated: September 7th, ____
CONCEPTUAL MAP
The research team at Good Stuff! will
1) study Meteor and Comet Chopper owners’ brand perceptions of heavyweight
cruiser motorcycles,
2) so that the Meteor marketing team can better understand the appeal of these
brands to specific customer segments,
3) so that the Meteor Motorcycle Company can improve the positioning of its
brands in the marketplace and achieve a 30 per cent annual growth in sales
revenues in the coming year.
BACKGROUND
Meteor Motorcycle Co. is one of the industry's leading manufacturers of customized,
high-performance bikes in the luxury cruiser class. It is one of the only custom
motorcycle makers equipped with full-service design, engineering, manufacturing, paint,
and polishing and administrative teams.
The company has four different kinds of bikes under production. They are all individually
branded under Meteor X, Meteor Y, Meteor Z, and the Comet Chopper brand names, and
represent the company’s varied product offerings ranging in price from $23,000 to as
much as $100,000 and above. The company has seen a tremendous growth from
approximately 27 bikes sold in 2000 to an impressive 2700 in the year 2004. Comet
Chopper, the brainchild of the creative force behind Meteor, Jeff Branson, currently
accounts for nearly 55% of the current annual company sales of approximately $70
million.
Comprehensive background information for the purpose of this project was conducted
and divided into client interview findings and other supporting material.
CLIENT INTERVIEW
On September 11, 200_, the Meteor marketing team met researchers from Good Stuff! at
the Meteor headquarters. The presentation included the history of the Meteor Motorcycle
Company, its founders, the brand types and other useful inputs. The Meteor marketing
team was open to allowing the Good Stuff! researchers to participate in the Harvest Biker
Fest event to be held in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Details of the event and other
issues were discussed during the same session. It was also agreed that Meteor would
provide a list of existing Meteor Chopper owners to help Good Stuff! in its research.
SUPPORTING MATERIAL
Meteor Motorcycle Company was previously involved in similar projects with Good
Stuff!. In the Fall of 1998 and in the Spring of 2000, Good Stuff! conducted Meteor’s
first dealer and customer satisfaction phone surveys. The results had immediate
operational impact for Meteor. The client interview revealed that in the past five years,
sales have increased 1800 per cent. The Good Stuff! researchers assigned to the Meteor X
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team, Meteor Y team and the Meteor Z team were allowed to review these past projects
to gain a better understanding of the previous research methodologies and issues. This
background information proved to be very useful to the current Good Stuff! researchers.
CLIENT NEEDS & RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
Currently, Meteor’s marketing team needs to better understand the demographic profile
of its customers. Part of this is because Meteor sells through a network of dealers, some
of whom do not always record details about the demographics of motorcycle buyers. In
addition, Meteor also needs insight into the attitudes, interests and opinions
(psychographics) of Meteor brand and Comet Chopper brand owners. Meteor also needs
to understand how these customers regard four brands relative to each other: Meteor,
Comet Chopper, Harley, and Big Dog. Finally, because of the unexpected sales success
of the Comet Chopper motorcycle, Meteor needs to understand what are the major factors
for the appeal of the Comet Chopper.
Accordingly, four modules of research will comprise the joint research project.
 To describe the Comet Chopper owner in terms of demographics and
psychographics thereby gaining a better understanding of the existing
customer profile.
Good Stuff! will explore the demographics of the Comet Chopper owner in
terms of age, sex, income, occupation, and education level in addition to
psychographics such as attitudes, beliefs, consumption habits and interests.
 To identify and gather information about existing competitors that buyers
consider when buying a Comet Chopper.
Good Stuff! will gain an understanding of who in terms of competitors are
Comet Chopper owners’ considering during the buying process, and why.
 To understand the appeal of the Comet Chopper.
Good Stuff! will explore the demand for the Comet Chopper by examining the
appeal. Good Stuff! will determine what the appeal of the Comet Chopper is, to
further understand the feelings, stories and attitudes behind the Comet Chopper
customer.
 To understand the level of brand awareness between Meteor and the
Comet Chopper.
Good Stuff! will research the customer’s perception of the brand relation
between the Meteor brand and the Comet Chopper (made by Meteor). Good
Stuff! will research customers’ awareness levels, identify degrees of brand
awareness and examine issues related to dual branding.
RESEARCH METHODOLOGY
For the purpose of this research Good Stuff! will undertake primary research to collect
both quantitative as well as qualitative data, as follows:
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


Web Surveys: Primary source of data collection will be through an internet site
Surveytime.com; that will host the electronic questionnaire. One hundred
Meteor owners and 200 Comet Chopper owners will receive a letter from Good
Stuff! explaining the purpose of the study and inviting their participation. This
2:1 ratio of Comet Chopper to Meteor owners reflects the current sales ratio of
these two brands. The letter will direct them to the website and request then to
complete the survey. A $2 cash incentive will be included in each recruiting
letter. Importantly, those taking the survey will be entered into a raffle for a
leather Meteor varsity jacket.
Phone Interviews: A concerted effort will be made to identity and approach
those Comet Chopper owners that failed to complete the web survey. The
contact details of the current Chopper owners would be provided by the Meteor
marketing team.
Observations and Interviews: Good Stuff! researchers will attend the Harvest
Biker Fest on September 19 and September 20. It is believed that the Rally will
provide us with an opportunity to observe chopper owners in their environment
and to interview them, as well.
CODING AND DATA ENTRY




Survey Time.com allows the researchers to download data into Excel
spreadsheets.
After conducting the phone interviews, the responses will be transferred into the
excel spreadsheets, as well.
Numerical data will be entered for close-ended questions.
Entered data will be checked for accuracy and edited if necessary.
After the spreadsheet has been edited and checked for accuracy, it will be converted into
an SPSS data file. After completing the coding and data entry for the closed and openended questions, results will be tabulated.
DATA ANALYSIS
Some of the various techniques that will be utilized to analyze the data are
 Descriptive statistics in tabulated form using percentages
 Graphical analysis of the data
 Correlation Analysis
The following are some examples of results of data analysis that Meteor’s marketing
team can expect to see in the final report.
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Brand Awareness
40%
Consider Comet Chopper
Thought to be a Separate
Company
35%
Comet Chopper is a Meteor
brand
30%
Comet Chopper is a West
Coast Chopper brand
25%
%age
20%
Comet Chopper is a Harley
Brand
15%
Others
10%
5%
0%
1
Brands
.
Geographic Distribution of Comet Chopper Owners
60%
50%
TX
FL
40%
CA
&ages
30%
WI
Others
20%
10%
0%
1
States
TIMELINE
ACTIVITY
Meeting with Meteor marketing team
Harvest Biker Fest
Proposal & Questionnaire Submission
Survey Loaded in the Web Server
Letters mailed to Comet Chopper owners
Data Collection
Follow up Telephone Interviews
Coding, Data Entry and Data Cleaning
EXPECTED COMPLETION DATE
Sept 11
Sept 19& 20
Oct 7-10
Oct 10-20
Oct 10-14
Oct 14-30
Nov 1-7
Nov 7-14
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Preliminary Analysis
Final Analysis and Report
Presentation to Client
Nov 14-21
Nov 22-30
Dec 4
INFORMATION INVESTMENT
COST ESTIMATION – TASKS*
Upfront Consulting Work and Design
Designing & Producing Questionnaires ($55/hr)
Research & Compilation of Name List ($55/hr)
Final Analysis & Reporting ($75/hr)
Internet Survey**
Phone Line / Calling Cards (1 min @ $0.10)
Telephone Interviewers (150 phone interviews @ $10 per interview)
Incentives to Respondents ($2 @ X 300 respondents = $400 jacket)
Data Entry (1 survey @ 10minutes @ $6.50/hr)
Coding the Data (programming work & compatibility of data)
Other Overhead Cost (Office Supplies-binders, photocopying)
TOTAL
HOURS
-------80 hours
8
100
-------250
--------------50
---------------
COSTS (*)
$ 8,000.00
$ 4,400.00
$ 440.00
$ 7,500.00
$18,000.00
$ 1,500.00
$ 1,500.00
$ 1,000.00
$ 325.00
$ 2,500.00
$ 500.00
$45,665.00
Note: Other operating expenses encountered during the conduct of the project will be
invoiced additionally to Meteor at the conclusion of the project.
* Hours and hourly rates are presented for Good Stuff!’s internal use. These would be
deleted in the version of this proposal given to the Meteor marketing team.
** The Internet Survey cost includes the programming and the designing of the Web
module, server and usage fee and data retrieval.
DELIVERABLES
At the conclusion of the project, the following will be delivered to Meteor:
 Three copies of the final written report with all the appendices. The final report
will include an annotated survey with the percentage of responses for each
possible question response. Detailed data tables will be included in the report to
summarize important information found in the research. It will also include the
final conclusions and recommendations made based on the research study.
 Three CD’s with the electronic version of the final report, the PowerPoint slides
and the SPSS data files.
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BIOS
Mark Peterson
Research Team Leader
Mark Peterson received his Ph.D. in Marketing from the Georgia Institute of Technology
in March 1994. Mark received the Academy of Marketing Science’s Alpha Kappa Psi
Dissertation Award for his lab and field study of consumers’ emotional responses to
television ads. Mark’s scholarly works have been published in the Journal of Business
Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Small Business
Management Journal among others. Prior to launching Good Stuff!, Mark was a
statistical methods consultant for SDR, Inc. in Atlanta, and an associate professor of
marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington where he taught in the Masters of
Science in Marketing Research program.
Jim McGee
Research Team Associate
Jim McGee received his MSMR degree from the University of Texas at Arlington
in 1996. Since that time, Jim has worked as a project manager for a variety of marketing
research firms including Campbell Research and Global Mapping International. Jim is
pleased to be reunited with Mark Peterson at Good Stuff!, as both were members of the
legendary “Gold Team” at SDR, Inc. in the mid-nineties. Jim regards his most rewarding
skill to be applying conjoint analysis – a multivariate statistical technique – in survey
research to solve problems for client firms.
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