Question 1 – Your task is to get access to real-world data from any marketing database maintained by any individual business. This data can be in the form of customer purchase data, sales data, inventory management data, and advertising expenditure data, data on shrinkage, etc.
For example, Smith’s has consumer-level data from their Fresh Values loyalty card. A car wash will have a database with data on the usage of their car wash machines. An automobile repair shop will have databases that record the makes and models of the cars that they have serviced. A pizza store will have a sales database on the number and type of pizzas sold every day. A furniture store will have an inventory database. A restaurant will have a sales database where they record details on each customer order. A laundromat will have a maintenance database with information on when and how often each washer and dryer has been serviced.
Depending on the scope of the business, such databases may range from simple paper ledgers with hand-written entries, to sophisticated databases running into terabytes of data, and everything in between. Getting access to any kind of database is acceptable. (Please note that databases that are related to SUU in any way are not acceptable).
Establish contact with any local (or non-local) business. The best thing to do is to approach a business where you already have a reliable contact or approach a business owned by friends/relatives. Find out what kind of data they routinely collect and what databases they maintain. Get data from any one such database from them, preferably in a spreadsheet format. Explain that you do not need individually-identifiable data – for example, if Boulevard Furnishings has a customer database, they can give you customer purchase data that has been stripped of customer names and addresses, and only identifies their customers by an ID number.
Turn in the data in an electronic format as an email attachment. You should also provide a description/explanation of the spreadsheet. If the data is from a car repair shop for example, you would describe the data along the lines of “Column A: customer ID, Column B: make of car, Column C: model of car, Column D: work performed, Column E: amount spent,” etc. Apart from that, no write up is required. If the data is suitable/appropriate, I will show you in class how the real-world data you acquired can be analyzed.
Question 2 – Read the chapter on Observation Research in your text.
a) Briefly describe the major techniques used in observation research in your own words.
b) Which of these techniques did you find the most interesting, and why? (One single-spaced page max).
Question 3 – Using self-reflection, a kind of observational research method, you will study whether, and how, consumer behavior is affected by warranties.
Think about the last time you purchased a consumer durable (for example, a laptop, cell phone, TV, etc). Go back to your purchase decision, and think about your own behavior as a consumer. Use the method of self-reflection (which consists of observing one’s own behavior) to answer the questions below.
• Are consumers aware of warranties and the terms of a warranty?
• Do they have a preference for particular kinds of warranties?
• How do they shop for warranties?
• Do they buy extra warranties from the store, and what kinds of products?
• What factors influence the purchase of an extra warranty?
• Does purchase of a warranty change post-purchase behavior (for example, do consumers take less care of the item after they purchase a warranty on it)?
Do consumers use warranty protection? For example, do they get repairs done or get replacement products using the warranty?
Is there a relationship between consumer personality and purchase of a warranty (for example, are certain kinds of people more likely to buy a warranty)?
Note: Self-reflection needs to be a deep process. If you yourself have limited experience that prevents you from answering the questions above in sufficient depth through self-reflection, you should talk about the topic with family members/friends and then answer the questions based on their combined experience instead of your own experience.
