Qualitative Research Techniques

Chapters
This exercise will require you to take into consideration concepts and material from chapter 5
(Secondary Data and Packaged Information) and chapter 6 (Qualitative Research Techniques).
Description of the Problem
Lucy Betcher had worked as a consultant for the Small Business Administration for a number of
years. Her old high school classmates and their spouses gather at least once a year to renew
friendships. Judy Doyle, Mike Fuller, Adele Smith, Nancy Egolf, Joy Greer, and Jackie Reynolds had
different careers and several were retiring. At their last reunion, Jackie mentioned to Lucy that she
was interested in doing something else after retiring from teaching. Adele overheard this conversation
and said she was interested in trying something new as well. Could Lucy, with all her years of helping
others get started in business, assist her friends?
The next morning, while sitting on Todd and Joy’s comfortable balcony overlooking boats in a
canal, Lucy asked the entire group: “Jackie and Adele are interested in getting into some sort of
business opportunity. Do any of you have any thoughts on this?” Having spent a successful career in
pharmaceutical sales, Mike said, “There are opportunities for services for senior citizens in terms of
prescription drug management and administration.”
Mike noted that many older people still in their homes or living in retirement centers had difficulty
keeping track of getting their prescriptions filled and taking their medications on schedule. “It’s a real
problem when people get to be 85 and over,” Mike said. “I see a growing need for a personal service
that would provide this type of care.” Nancy and Judy talked about a unique coffee shop they had
patronized. Not only was the staff knowledgeable about different types of coffees and helpful in
guiding customers to sample different flavors, but the shop also sold a variety of coffee makers and
tea makers and books on coffee and teas. However, what they really liked was the atmosphere. Instead
of the placid and contemplative ambience that most coffee shops offer, this shop featured different
“learning” exhibits where you could interact and discover something new. The topics changed
weekly—local history, coffee making, art, music, and readings by authors.
The two women were fascinated with the shop and had talked to the owner about franchising the
concept so they could each start one in their hometowns in Pennsylvania and New York. The owner
told them he had several successful franchises operating. The biggest challenge the prospective coffee
shop owners would face initially would be in finding a location that would attract the clientele who
would embrace the product and atmosphere and return regularly. The owner obviously couldn’t help
them make those decisions in their hometowns, so they would need help finding the best locations
there.
Questions/Tasks
1. Looking back at Chapter 5, what secondary data could identify the number of persons in
different age groups in each Core-Based Statistical Area (CBSA)?
2. Based on what you learned in Chapter 5, identify a packaged services firm that would be
helpful in locating a successful coffee shop in different locales. Assume that since the coffee
shop owner has several successful coffee shops, the owner has a database of current customer
information.
3. In considering either the prescription service or the coffee shop venture, what qualitative
research techniques would you now recommend that the prospective business owners use?
Why would you recommend these qualitative techniques?

Chapters
This exercise will require you to take into consideration concepts and material from chapter 7
(Evaluating Survey Data Collection Methods) and chapter 6 (Understanding Measurement,
Developing Questions, and Designing the Questionnaire).
Description of the Problem
Moe’s sandwich shop sells wraps that are made with tortillas rather than sandwich bread. Seven
Moe’s units are located in Riyadh, and Faisal (the owner) is thinking about setting up a franchise
system to go “big time” with countrywide coverage. Faisal hires a marketing strategy consultant, who
recommends that he conduct a baseline survey of his seven Riyadh units to better understand his
customers and to spot strengths and weaknesses he might not be aware of. The consultant
recommends that Faisal also do a survey of consumers in Riyadh who are not Moe’s Tortilla Wraps
customers or who are infrequent customers to see if there are weaknesses or factors that are
preventing them from being loyal customers. Finally, the consultant recommends that surveys be done
in two of the possible expansion metropolitan areas of Jeddah and Dammam to ascertain the
attractiveness of and market potential for Moe’s Tortilla Wraps to sandwich shop users in these cities.
The consultant mentions that, ideally, the three surveys would have some equivalent or highly similar
questions to facilitate comparisons of the findings among the surveys. Together Faisal and the
consultant agree on the following research objectives.
Research Objectives for Users of Moe’s Tortilla Wraps Survey in Riyadh
1. How often do users purchase a sandwich at Moe’s?
2. Overall, how satisfied are users with Moe’s Tortilla Wraps?
3. How do they rate the performance of Moe’s Tortilla Wraps on the following aspects?
a. Competitive price
b. Convenience of locations
c. Variety of sandwiches
d. Freshness of sandwich fillings
e. Speed of service
f. Taste of wraps
g. Uniqueness of sandwiches
4. Obtain a demographic profile of the sample.
Research Objectives for Nonusers of Moe’s Tortilla Wraps Survey in Riyadh
1. How often do people purchase sandwiches from sandwich shops?
2. Overall, how satisfied are they with the sandwich shop they use most often?
3. Have they heard of Moe’s Tortilla Wraps?
4. If so, have they used Moe’s in the past six months?
5. If so, how do they rate Moe’s Tortilla Wraps performance on the following various aspects?
a. Competitive price
b. Convenience of locations
c. Variety of sandwiches
d. Freshness of sandwich fillings
e. Speed of service
f. Taste of wraps
g. Uniqueness of sandwiches
6. Obtain a demographic profile of the sample.
Research Objectives for Potential Users of Moe’s Tortilla Wraps Survey in Jeddah and
Dammam
1. How often do people purchase sandwiches from sandwich shops?
2. How do they rate the sandwich shop they use most often on the following various aspects?
a. Competitive price
b. Convenience of locations
c. Variety of sandwiches
d. Freshness of sandwich fillings
e. Speed of service
f. Taste of sandwiches
g. Uniqueness of sandwiches
3. Given the following description, what is their reaction to the use of tortilla in place of bread in a
sandwich?
A sandwich shop that uses tortillas rather than bread for its sandwiches. It specializes in beef,
chicken, or processed-meat sandwiches dressed with cheese, chopped lettuce, tomato, onions, and/or
peppers and topped with salsa or a spicy chipotle dressing, all priced at about the same you would
pay for a sandwich at Subway.
4. How likely are they to use this sandwich shop if it was at a convenient location in their city?
5. Obtain a demographic profile of the sample.
Questions/Tasks
1. For each set of objectives associated with each target group of consumers, decide on and
justify a data collection method.
2. Given your chosen data collection method, design the full questionnaire, including selecting
measurement scales, developing questions, and finalizing the appearance of the questionnaire
for each of the three Moe’s Tortilla Wraps surveys. In your deliberations, keep in mind that
cost is a concern, as Faisal does not have deep pockets to finance this research. However, his
expansion plans are not on a fast timetable, so the completion time of the surveys is not
especially critical. Of course, it is important to have survey findings that are representative of
the respective target consumers for each survey.

Chapters
This exercise will require you to take into consideration concepts and material from chapter 9
(Selecting the Sample) and chapter 10 (Determining the Size of a Sample).
Description of the Problem
One of the most popular tourist destinations in the United States is Niagara Falls, located on the
U.S.–Canada border in northern New York. An estimated 12 million tourists visit Niagara Falls each
year. However, while its attractiveness has not changed, environmental factors have recently
threatened to significantly decrease these numbers. At least three factors are at work: (1) a sluggishly
recovering national economy, (2) the substantial weakening of the global economy, and (3) increased
competition by beefed-up marketing efforts of other tourist attractions that are experiencing declines
due to the first two factors.
A large majority of Niagara Falls visitors are Americans who drive to the location, so family
financial worries have the Niagara Falls Tourism Association especially concerned. The association
represents all types of businesses in the greater Niagara area that rely on tourism. Among their
members are 80 hotels that account for approximately 16,000 rooms. The hotels have anywhere from
20 to 600 rooms, with a large majority (about 80%, accounting for 30% of the rooms) being local and
smaller, and the larger ones (the remaining 20%, accounting for 70% of the rooms) being national
chains and larger. For all hotels in the area, occupancy at peak season (June 15–September 15)
averages around 90%. The association wants to conduct a survey of current visitors to evaluate their
overall satisfaction with their visit to the Niagara area and their intentions to tell friends, relatives, and
coworkers (WOM) to visit Niagara Falls. The association has designed a face-to-face interview
questionnaire, and it has issued a request for proposals for sample design. It has received three bids,
each of which is described here.
Bid 1. The Maid of the Mist union—employees of the company that operates the boats that take
tourists on the Niagara River to view and experience the falls—proposes to do the interviews with
tourists who are waiting for the Maid boats to return and load up. Union employees will conduct
interviews with 1,000 adult American tourists (one per family group) during a one-week period in
July at $3 per completed interview.
Bid 2. The Simpson Research Company, a local marketing research company, proposes to take a
sample of the five largest association member hotels and conduct 200 interviews in the lobbies of
these hotels with American tourists (one per family) during the months of July and August at a cost of
$5 per completed interview.
Bid 3. The SUNY-Niagara Marketing Department, an academic unit in the local university,
proposes to randomly select 20 hotels from all hotels in the area (not just those belonging to the
Tourism Association) and to then select a proportional random sample of rooms, using room numbers,
from each selected hotel based on hotel room capacities. It will interview 750 American tourists (one
per family) in their rooms during the period of June 15–September 15 at a cost of $10 per completed
interview.
Questions/Tasks
1. What is the sample frame in each bid?
2. Identify the type of sample method in each bid and assess the representativeness of the sample
with respect to American tourists visiting the Niagara Falls area.
3. Evaluate the accuracy (sample error) with each bid.
4. The Niagara Falls Tourism Association has budgeted $5,000 for data collection in this survey.
Using information from your answers to questions 1 to 3 and further considering the total cost
of data collection, which one of the proposals do you recommend that the Niagara Falls
Tourist Association accept? Justify your recommendation.