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MMM059 Market Research

1. What is the purpose of this assessment?

Use the gym dataset, which will be provided to you, to apply different methods to inform the gym on their current level of customer satisfaction and to provide recommendations for the gym (based on the analysis).

Module Learning Outcomes being assessed

Demonstrate an understanding of the research problems encountered by managers and approaches to commissioning market research.

Show the ability to frame research questions and apply appropriate methods as part of a research strategy.

Critically evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of different research techniques and the difficulties of applying them in the real world.

2. What is the task of this assessment?

You will be working in groups of 4-5 members. You will be able to choose your group up to the end of week 3. After this date, I will form groups with students that are not part of any team.

Important: You should form a group first and then register your group with me. To do so one person per team should send an email with the full name of all team members to myself ([email protected]) copying all other team members into the email as well (e.g. in cc). Once you have done so I will confirm receipt of your email and will tell you your group number. I will only be able to confirm that you’ve successfully created a group if there are 4-5 team members in the group. Further, please add the module code (MMM059) in the subject line of your email. Please note that all groups are provisional until the end of week 3 as I will assign students that are not part of any group by this point to existing groups. I will confirm the final groups to everyone at the end of week 3.

Your brief is to use the gym dataset and to run a variety of analysis to inform the gym of their current state of customer satisfaction and to provide avenues of improvements.

The background of the market research study:

To stay competitive in todays volatile market, a high-end gym decided to hire a market research agency (your team) to conduct a study around their gym member’s satisfaction with the gym. The goal is to get an overview over the general level of satisfaction, i.e., the status quo of the gym; but also to understand if and where gym members see the potential for improvement.

What has happened so far:

So far, you, the market research agency’s team responsible for conducting the study, has identified the relevant customer touchpoints, i.e. all prime points of contact between the gym members with the gym which have an impact on customer satisfaction. These touchpoints have been identified through qualitative interviews with 10 gym members. Based on the identified touchpoints, your team has designed a survey. You’ve tested the survey through a pilot study by sending the survey to 20 gym members. Based on the pilot you have refined the survey and the survey items to its final version. This final version was subsequently emailed to all gym members, i.e., 4,711 members. After sending two reminders your team has received 469 responses (i.e., response rate of 10%). 6 of these surveys were removed because of substantial missing data. Thus, the final dataset consists of 463 responses.

What your team will do next:

You will now analyse the data. You will provide the gym with (1) general descriptive statistics relevant to the study, (2) the Net Promotor Score (NPS) and (3) the results of a regression analysis evaluating the overall satisfaction of gym members with the gym based on the prior identified customer touchpoints.

Further, the gym believes that the time gym members spend per week in the gym is based on the overall satisfaction, the number of gym classes members attend and if they also use the sauna. They further believe that relational capital (the friendship that gym members and staff have developed with each other) positively influences the link between the time spend per week and overall satisfaction, the time spend per week and number of gym classes attended as well as the time spend per week and sauna usage. Thus, you will provide the gym with (4) the results of this regression and moderation analysis.

After you’ve analysed the data you will provide the gym with a 3,500 word report of your findings.

The report will have the following structure:

1. Introduction

2. Market Research Tools

3. Analysis and Findings

4. Recommendations

5. References

6. Appendices

1. Introduction (approximately 500 words)

In the introduction you will provide a brief overview about the importance of customer satisfaction and loyalty in the service industry in general and for high-end gyms in particular. You will support your arguments with relevant academic literature.

2. Market Research Tools (approximately 500 words)

In this section you provide an overview over two tools used to analyse the data, the (1) NPS and (2) regression analysis. You may critically discuss what they are used for, how they are used, what the thoughts behind using them are and what their strength and weaknesses are. You may use academic and practitioner literature.

3. Analysis and Findings (approximately 1700 words)

You will present the results of the analysis: (1) descriptive statistics, (2) NPS, (3) regression analysis of overall satisfaction on customer touchpoints and (4) the regression analysis of time spend in the gym on overall satisfaction, number of gym classes taken and sauna usage and the moderation analysis of the prior via relational capital. You will need to present your findings also in visual form (e.g., as table or figure etc.). These visuals should NOT contain any copy and paste outputs from SPSS. You may wish to create your own tables and figures with only the relevant statistics and values.

4. Recommendations (approximately 800 words)

You will base the recommended set of actions on the prior analysis. Your recommendations need to be grounded in the prior analysis and findings. Your recommended course of action needs to be specific. You will make arguments in support of your recommendations based on your findings while you also bring in relevant literature to further support your arguments.

5. References (outside the word count)

The reference list will include all cited work used in the main body of your assignment (academic journal articles and other materials). Most of these references will be academic journal articles or books, e.g., the textbooks, but you might also use practitioner resources. The reference list should consist of at least 10 references. You will need to demonstrate that you have read textbooks and academic articles on methodology but also on the subject content. You will need to support substantial statements made within your report through references. The reference list will be in Harvard refencing style and is outside the word count.

6. Appendices (outside the word count)

Appendices will contain details of your data analysis. Please append two screenshots of SPSS. One screenshot should show the data view and one screenshot should show the variable view of SPSS of your final dataset. Further, please append the SPSS output to you assignment as well. The appendix is excluded from the word count.

3. What is required of me in this assessment?