Read the Adirondack Ride for the Environment case.You will use the case as the basis of this assignment, which is a significant portion of this week’s classes.You will use the entire market research process.Note that this is an individual assignment.Although your answers will necessarily be briefer than a professional market research report, you should plan on submitting a ½ page [minimum] discussion for each of the following elements:
Problem Definition/Purpose of the Research – state clearly what you define as the goal of the research.What questions should be answered?What outcomes should be provided?It might help to think of the issues from the information user’s point of view.In other words, if you were Harrison Andrews, the manager who wants information about charity bike rides, what would you want to know?
Plan the Research – What type[s] of information will you use?Primary? Secondary?What forms of research do you think would be most useful and why?How much information is enough information?What contact methods would you use?
Performance of the Research – Of specific use for Marketing courses are the business research sites maintained by the NU libraries.Using http://subjectguides.lib.neu.edu/business for access, try the ‘Marketing’ and ‘Industry’ tabs to gain access to a number of useful resources.You can also use any other sources that you find that are appropriate – magazine articles, or trade sources, etc.
Processing the Research – Analyze the information you have selected and draw your conclusions.You may need to interpret the data you find. [Note that we have provided some survey data so that you do not have to collect your own.You may use that data as part of the assignment.]Again, keep in mind that, as marketing research manger you need to consider the manager receiving this information, what would s/he need to know?In discussing your results, make sure to cite your sources and make explicit assumptions you made about the information in order to draw a conclusion.
Preparation of the Final Report – The final report should include your conclusions from your research [and remember the conclusions should address the issues you defined as a problem!], a summary of the process and any biases or issues that you see with the conclusions.
This should be uploaded as a Word document.