Faculty of Business: Marketing
Credit points: 6 cp

Subject level: Undergraduate

Result Type: Grade and marks

Requisite(s): 24309 Introductory Marketing Research
These requisites may not apply to students in certain courses.
There are also course requisites for this subject. See access conditions.

Handbook description

This subject provides a capstone experience in marketing research and project management, drawing upon the skills developed in the requisite subject. Students work together in groups to undertake an investigation of a marketing management problem on behalf of a 'real world' client. This involves the design and implementation of all stages of a market research project.

Subject objectives/outcomes

On successful completion of this subject students should be able to:

1. Correctly identify marketing problems, develop the appropriate research strategy, and analyse data as this subject provides them with an opportunity to develop their practical marketing research skills;
2. Appreciate the realities of project management within a market research context; and
3. Interpret marketing research information from a variety of sources, and present research results in both written and oral reports.

Contribution to graduate profile

A critical part of a marketing graduate's education is the ability to gather and organise information. Applications of Marketing Research is the capstone subject in a stream of subjects that deal with information, research and analysis. In addition, it provides students with an opportunity to develop project management skills. The subject is designed to teach the practicalities of research.

Teaching and learning strategies

Lectures will not normally be held. This subject requires students to undertake a 'real-life' research project for a client organisation to gain first hand practical research experience. The projects offered will vary in size, scope, required methodology, etc. Each class will undertake one project.

Students will be required to work in groups. Group size will depend on the nature of the project but normally consist of between four and six people. In addition to carrying out the research, each group will be required to participate in the necessary project management and administrative tasks associated with the work. Each group will be supervised on an individual basis, by a research supervisor. This will involve meetings between the group and supervisor. The timing of these meetings will be dependent upon the nature of the project and the needs of the group. Here specific research problems will be discussed and group progress monitored. Supervisors will also act to approve material before it is submitted to the client. Groups will be required to work cooperatively with other groups in their class and co-ordinate their activities to ensure the most efficient and effective use of resources.

A series of non-compulsory seminars will be conducted. These seminars will offer guidance in specific research areas, including such topics as problem identification, proposal preparation, research design, qualitative research techniques, sampling, instrumentation design and data analysis. The class will determine the topics for inclusion in these seminars.

All groups are required to give a weekly activity update as regards to progress made, tasks completed and activities to be completed in the following week.

Content

• Initial Project Planning
• Project Management
• Identification of Management and Research Problem
• Research Design
• Instrument Design
• Data Collection
• Coding and Analysis of Data
• Reporting and Presentation.

Assessment

The following is only an approximate as the weighting will change from project to project.

Research Proposal (Group and Individual)	20%
This addresses objective 1.
Methodology Section 1 and 2 (Group and Individual)	50%
This addresses objectives 1 and 2.
Final Reports (Group)	30%
This addresses objective 3.

The very nature of the subject, whereby each project is unique, ensures its security. Free-riding, if any, is picked up quickly.