Marketing Research

1. A large hardware store collects data about what its customers buy and stores these data in a data warehouse. If you were the store’s buyer for lawn equipment, what would you want to know from the data warehouse that would help you be a more successful buyer? 2. A sunglasses retailer is trying to determine if there is a significant market for its merchandise in a specific mall location where it is considering opening a store. Would it be most likely to use primary or secondary data, or a combination of the two, to answer this question? 3. Marshall is planning to launch a new sandwich shop and is trying to decide what features and price would interest consumers. He sends a request for a proposal to four marketing research vendors, and three respond, as described in the table below: Which vendor should Marshall use? Explain your rationale for picking this vendor over the others. Vendor A Vendor B Vendor C The vendor that Marshall has used in the past estimates it can get the job done for $200,000 and in two months. The vendor plans to do a telephone-based survey analysis and use secondary data from the U.S. Census. Marshall’s key competitor has used this vendor, which claims that it can get the job done for $150,000 and in one month. This vendor plans to do a telephone-based survey analysis and use secondary data. During a discussion pertaining to its price and time estimates, the vendor indicates it will draw on insights it has learned from a recent report prepared for one of Marshall’s competitors. This well-known vendor has recently started to focus on the restaurant industry. It quotes a price of $180,000 and a time of one month. The vendor plans to conduct a Web-based survey analysis and use secondary data.