SAIGONTECH
Course Syllabus
Marketing Research and Strategies
1. Class: MRKG 2348 - Marketing Research and Strategies
Semester: Fall 2014
2. Instructor: Lam Huynh Nhu, MBA
Email: nhulh@saigontech.edu.vn
Office telephone: (84-8) 3715 5033 (ext. 1256)
Mobile phone: 0906-006-757
Office hours: by appointment
3. Campus and Room Location with Days and Times
Venue: R202 SaigonTech Tower
Time: Friday 7:30am-10:40am
4. Course Semester Credit Hours (SCH): 3
5. Total Course Contact Hours: 48 hours
6. Textbook: Basic marketing research: A decision - making approach 3rd ed. By Naresh K. Malhotra,
2009. ISBN: 978-0-13-603790-3
7. Course Description: A simulated marketing environment for experience in marketing decisionmaking. Provides practical experiences in analyzing marketing cases. Includes dynamic
interrelationships among marketing price, channels of distribution, promotion, and product
responsibility.
8. Program Learning Outcomes
1. Identify the marketing mix components in relation to market segmentation.
2. Explain the environmental factors which influence consumer and organizational decision-making
process.
3. Outline a marketing plan.
4. Identify the elements of the communication process between buyers and sellers in business.
5. Utilize marketing research techniques to implement competitive marketing decisions.
9. Course Student Learning Outcomes (SLOs): After the course, students are expected to be able to:
1. Analyze marketing case studies employing the problem-solving process;
2. Utilize marketing research techniques to implement competitive marketing decisions.
3. Demonstrate management, accounting, and marketing knowledge through oral and/or written
presentations.
4. Interpret marketing research data to forecast industry trends and meet customer demands.
5. Use Excel for data analysis.
10. Types of Instruction:
* Lecture: 50%
* Class & Group discussion/presentation: 50%
* As this course is tough and challenging, I require all of you to read textbook and PowerPoint slides
prior to class. Free tutoring class is also offered and must be scheduled with me via email.
1
10. Grading policy
Items
Attendance and Participation
Pre-class quiz * 8
Personal assignment
Group Project (report and presentation)
Mid-term Exam
Final Exam
Total
%
5%
10%
10%
25%
20%
30%
100%
 Personal Bonus Assignments: Three (03) bonus assignments will be offered throughout the
course and are optional. If you do these assignments by your own self, you can earn a maximum
of 6% bonus grade to your overall grade. Group work is NOT allowed.
11. Explanation of grade components and requirements
Attendance and Participation (5%)
Regular attendance is required. If you miss class, you will be responsible for any work missed during
your absence and will have your class participation grade reduced. You are also highly encouraged to
join in class discussion by giving questions, answers or comments. Your grade will be given based
on your regular attendance and quality of contribution to class discussion.
Pre-class quiz (10%)
As this course is tough and challenging, you have to read textbook and PowerPoint slides prior to
class so that you can fully comprehend my lectures at school. At the beginning of the class, you will
have a pre-class quiz on reading material that I will discuss with you on the same day. There will be
10 pre-class quizzes; however only 08 best quiz scores will count towards your final grade.
Quiz
Type
Open/close book
No. of questions
Multiple Choice and
Short Answer Questions
Open
10
Duration Points
15
minutes
10
Personal Assignment (10%)
You personally must develop a questionnaire of 10 - 12 questions for a pre-assigned mini research.
The questionnaire must be sent to my email address for grading. Only soft copy is needed.
Group Project Presentation (25%)
Each team of 3 to 4 students will write a report and present a pre-assigned research project to the
class. Your group project must cover both qualitative research and quantitative research, include data
analysis in the format of charts, graphs, tables etc., and discuss key findings, and managerial insights.
Team presentation should last 30 minutes including Q & A section and must contain PowerPoint
slides. Team report must limit in 10 pages. Appendices can be used to illustrate your data tables,
graphs, charts etc., and will not count towards your 10 pages. Presentation and report must be sent to
my email address for grading. Only soft copies are needed. At the end of the course, I will ask for
evaluations of team members, and will consider these remarks when giving you final grade.
2
Mid-term and Final Exam (50%)
Exam
Midterm
Type
Open/close
book
No. of
questions
Duration
Points
MC
Close
30
35 minutes
30
Essay
Open
03
75 minutes
70
MC
Close
30
35 minutes
30
Essay
Open
03
75 minutes
70
Final
Notes
You must bring
your laptop with
Excel program to
class to do essay
exams.
12. Grading Scale
Percentage
Grade
90 – 100
80 – 89
70 – 79
60 – 69
0 – 59
Letter
Grade
A
B
C
D
F
The passing grade is D.
13. Course calendar
Week
1
Date
Topic
Due tasks
26/09/14 - Syllabus clarification, project/ tasks
assignment & discussion
- Chapter 1: Introduction to Marketing Research
2
03/10/14 - Chapter 2: Defining the market research
problems and developing an approach
- Quiz 1 (chapter 1 and 2)
3
10/10/14 - Chapter 3: Research design
- Quiz 2 (chapter 3)
4
17/10/14 - Chapter 4: Exploratory research design:
Secondary data
- Quiz 3 (chapter 4)
- Bonus assignment 1 discussion
5
24/10/14 - Chapter 6: Exploratory research design:
Qualitative research
- Group project discussion
- Quiz 4 (chapter 6)
- Bonus Assignment 1 DUE:
Using external published sources,
identify major firms in dairy
industry (e.g. Vinamilk) in
Vietnam in 2013.
3
6
31/10/14 - Chapter 7: Descriptive research design: Survey - Quiz 5 (chapter 7)
and Observation
- Group project & Bonus assignment 2
discussion
7
07/11/14 - Chapter 9: Measurement and Scaling:
Fundamentals and Comparative Scaling
- Mid-term exam review
- Quiz 6 (chapter 9)
- Bonus Assignment 2 DUE:
CoopMart wants to learn about
consumer grocery shopping
behavior. Use 1 qualitative
technique to conduct 1 interview
for this research.
8
14/11/14
9
21/11/14 - Chapter 10: Measurement and Scaling:
Noncomparative scaling techniques
- Quiz 7 (chapter 10)
10
28/11/14 - Chapter 10: Measurement and Scaling:
Noncomparative scaling techniques (cont.)
- Quiz 8 (chapter 10)
Mid-term Exam (chapter 1, 2, 3, 4, 6, 7)
- Group project & Personal assignment
discussion
11
05/12/14 - Chapter 11: Questionnaire and Form design
- Quiz 9 (chapter 11)
- Group project & Personal assignment
discussion
12
12/12/14 - Chapter 12: Sampling: Design and Procedures
- Group project discussion
13
- Quiz 10 (chapter 12)
- Personal Assignment DUE:
Design a questionnaire of 10 - 12
questions to help CoopMart
survey consumer grocery
shopping behavior.
19/12/14 - Chapter 16 & 18: Data Analysis: Frequency
distribution and Cross-Tabulation (exclude
Hypothesis Testing part), Correlation and
Regression
- Group project & Bonus assignment 3
discussion
14
26/12/14 - Final exam and group project review
15
02/01/15
16
09/01/15 - Group Presentation
- Bonus Assignment 3 DUE:
Problem 4 pp. 483, Problem 1
pp. 555 (a, b, d, g)
Final exam (chapter 9, 10, 11, 12, 16, 17)
- Group Project DUE (must
include report and presentation)
4
14. Classroom Policy
 Late work will NOT be accepted. I will deduct 10% from that late work’s score per every day
after due date.
 Always come to class on time.
 No cellphone use is allowed during lectures.
 Students are expected to take exam on the scheduled dates. Make-up exams are not guaranteed.
 I will ask for your permission if I need to use Vietnamese to explain difficult terms or concepts
for you, and vice versa.
 In-class exercises and exams require the use of a laptop. You will be informed on which specific
date you have to bring your laptop to class.
15. Cheating and Plagiarism Policy
Refer to Students' guidebook.
16. Guideline for group report
I.
II.
III.
IV.
V.
Executive summary
Introduction
1.
Company background
2.
Objectives of research and data to be gathered
Methodology
1.
Research methods used
2.
Survey method justification and description
3.
Data analysis methods used
Analysis
Conclusions and Recommendations
5