Meteor Proposal

OWNERS BRAND PERCEPTION research PROPOSAL Prepared for meteoroid Motorcycle Company true(p) blank out Dated September 7th, ____ EXECUTIVE SUMMARY Currently, Meteor necessitate to make how its nodes regard quaternion snitchs relative to each other Meteor, Comet Chopper, Harley, and Big Dog. Also, because of the unexpected sales success of the Comet Chopper motorcycle, Meteor needs to understand the major factors for the appeal of the Comet Chopper. Meteors marketing aggroup up also needs to modify the demographic profile of its customers.This is because Meteor sells through a network of dealers, some of whom do not of all time record detail about the demographics of motorcycle buyers. BACKGROUND On September 11, 200_, the Meteor marketing team met researchers from effective gormandise at the Meteor headquarters. The presentation intromitd the history of the Meteor Motorcycle Company, its founders, the defect types and other useful inputs. The Meteor marketing team was open to allowing the Good Stuff researchers to participate in the Harvest Biker Fest event to be held in the Kansas City metropolitan area. Details of the event and other issues were discussed during the like session.It was also agreed that Meteor would provide a list of existent Meteor Chopper owners to jock Good Stuff in its research. Problem definition / RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Problem definition The research team at Good Stuff give 1) pick up Meteor and Comet Chopper owners brandmark perceptions of heavyweight police cruiser motorcycles, 2) so that the Meteor marketing team can better understand the appeal of these brands to specific customer segments, 3) so that the Meteor Motorcycle Company can improve the positioning of its brands in the marketplace and behave a 30 per cent annual growth in sales revenues in the coming year.RESEARCH OBJECTIVES Accordingly, cardinal modules of research will comprise the joint research project. To identify and gather information about ex isting competitors that buyers consider when buying a Comet Chopper. Good Stuff will gain an understanding of who in impairment of competitors are Comet Chopper owners considering during the buying process, and why. To understand the appeal of the Comet Chopper. Good Stuff will research the lease for the Comet Chopper by examining the appeal. Good Stuff ill determine what the appeal of the Comet Chopper is, to further understand the feelings, stories and attitudes behind the Comet Chopper customer. To understand the level of brand sentiency between Meteor and the Comet Chopper. Good Stuff will research the customers perception of the brand relation between the Meteor brand and the Comet Chopper (made by Meteor). Good Stuff will research customers awareness levels, identify degrees of brand awareness and examine issues related to dual branding. To describe both the Meteor owner, and the Comet Chopper owner in foothold of demographics and psychographics thereby gaining a better understanding of the existing customer profile. Good Stuff will explore the demographics of the Comet Chopper owner in terms of age, sex, income, occupation, and education level in addition to psychographics such as attitudes, beliefs, consumption habits and interests. APPROACH TO THE PROBLEM Meteor Motorcycle Company was previously involved in like projects with Good Stuff. In the Fall of 1998 and in the Spring of 2000, Good Stuff onducted Meteors first dealer and customer satisfaction phone appraises. Both of these surveys accept a module on brand perceptions of Meteor and its competitors in the marketplace. The results had immediate ope symmetrynal impact for Meteor. Since the 1998 research project, sales for Meteor down increased 1800 per cent. The current research project will give primary focus to Meteor owners brand perceptions, with lesser emphasis to customer satisfaction of Meteor owners. Only Meteor owners will be surveyed. RESEARCH DESIGN For the purpose of this res earch Good Stuff ill undertake primary research to execute a conclusive design using web-surveying methods , as well as an exploratory design employing utterance and in-depth interviews at a regional motorcycle riders fest. For the web survey, all scale responses will be used. The ranking of the four focal brands on 12 different personality traits will be a core part of the research project. However, all other types of scale responses will be used. flying field WORK / DATA COLLECTION In this attempt, respondents will be recruited by phone to take the survey on the internet.For those without internet at work or at home (estimated to be less than 5 per cent of the sample frame), the interview will be conducted by phone. tissue lots Primary source of entropy collection will be through an internet site Surveytime. com that will host the electronic questionnaire. unitary hundred Meteor owners and 200 Comet Chopper owners will receive a letter from Good Stuff explaining the purpose of the study and inviting their participation. This 21 ratio of Comet Chopper to Meteor owners reflects the current sales ratio of these two brands.The letter will direct them to the website and request then to complete the survey. A $2 bills incentive will be included in each recruiting letter. Importantly, those taking the survey will be entered into a raffle for a leather Meteor varsity jacket. Phone Interviews A concerted effort will be made to identity and approach those Comet Chopper owners that failed to complete the web survey. The contact details of the current Chopper owners would be provided by the Meteor marketing team. Observations and Interviews Good Stuff esearchers will seem the Harvest Biker Fest on September 19 and September 20. It is believed that the Rally will provide us with an fortune to observe chopper owners in their environment and to interview them, as well. Coding and Data entry Survey Time. com allows the researchers to download data into Excel s preadsheets. After conducting the phone interviews, the responses will be transferred into the excel spreadsheets, as well. numerical data will be entered for close-ended questions. Entered data will be checked for accuracy and edited if necessary.After the spreadsheet has been edited and checked for accuracy, it will be converted into an SPSS data file. After completing the coding and data entry for the closed and open-ended questions, results will be tabulated. DATA ANALYSIS Some of the various techniques that will be utilized to analyze the data are Descriptive statistics in tabulated form using percentages Graphical analysis of the data Correlation Analysis The following are some examples of results of data analysis that Meteors marketing team can expect to see in the final report. . pic pic Timeline ACTIVITY EXPECTED fulfilment DATE Meeting with Meteor marketing team Sept 11 Harvest Biker Fest Sept 19& 20 Proposal & Questionnaire Submission Oct 7-10 Survey Loade d in the Web Server Oct 10-20 Letters mailed to Comet Chopper owners Oct 10-14 Data Collection Oct 14-30 Follow up call in Interviews Nov 1-7 Coding, Data Entry and Data cleansing Nov 7-14 Preliminary Analysis Nov 14-21 Final Analysis and Report Nov 22-30 Presentation to Client Dec 4 information Investment COST ESTIMATION TASKS* HOURS COSTS (*) Upfront Consulting Work and Design $ 8,000. 00 Designing & Producing Questionnaires ($55/hr) 80 hours $ 4,400. 00 Research & Compilation of Name List ($55/hr) 8 $ 440. 00 Final Analysis & Reporting ($75/hr) 100 $ 7,500. 0 Internet Survey** $18,000. 00 Phone Line / Calling Cards (1 min $0. 10) 250 $ 1,500. 00 Telephone Interviewers (150 phone interviews $10 per interview) $ 1,500. 00 Incentives to Respondents ($2 X 300 respondents = $400 jacket) $ 1,000. 00 Data Entry (1 survey 10minutes $6. 50/hr) 50 $ 325. 0 Coding the Data (programming work & compatibility of data) $ 2,500. 00 Other Overhead Cost (O ffice Supplies-binders, photocopying) $ 500. 00 TOTAL $45,665. 00 mark Other operating expenses encountered during the conduct of the project will be invoiced additionally to Meteor at the stopping point of the project. Hours and hourly rates are presented for Good Stuff s internal use. These would be deleted in the transformation of this proposal given to the Meteor marketing team. ** The Internet Survey cost includes the programming and the designing of the Web module, server and usage fee and data retrieval. REPORTING At the conclusion of the project, the following will be delivered to Meteor Three copies of the final written report with all the appendices. The final report will include an annotated survey with the percentage of responses for each possible question response. Detailed data tables will be included in the report to summarize important information found in the research.It will also include the final conclusions and recommendations made based on the rese arch study. Three CDs with the electronic rendering of the final report, the PowerPoint slides and the SPSS data files. PROJECT PERSONNEL Mark Peterson Research team Leader Mark Peterson current his Ph. D. in Marketing from the Georgia Institute of Technology in March 1994. Mark received the academy of Marketing Sciences Alpha Kappa Psi Dissertation Award for his lab and field study of consumers emotional responses to television ads. Marks scholarly works have been published in the journal of Business Research, the Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science, the Small Business Management Journal among others.Prior to launching Good Stuff , Mark was a statistical methods consultant for SDR, Inc. in Atlanta, and an associate professor of marketing at the University of Texas at Arlington where he taught in the Masters of Science in Marketing Research program. Jim McGee Research Team Associate Jim McGee received his MSMR degree from the University of Texas at Arlington in 1996. Sin ce that time, Jim has worked as a project manager for a variety of marketing research firms including Campbell Research and Global Mapping International. Jim is pleased to be reunited with Mark Peterson at Good Stuff , as both were members of the legendary Gold Team at SDR, Inc. in the mid-nineties.Jim regards his near rewarding skill to be applying conjoint analysis a multivariate statistical technique in survey research to solve problems for client firms. APPENDIXES If available at this time in the development of the project, a draft of Meteor Survey A would be attached. 0% 10% 20% 30% 40% 50% 60% &ages 1 States Geographic Distribution of Comet Chopper Owners TX FL CA WI Others 0% 5% 10% 15% 20% 25% 30% 35% 40% %age 1 carrys Brand sensory faculty Consider Comet Chopper Thought to be a Separate Company Comet Chopper is a Meteor brand Comet Chopper is a West Coast Chopper brand Comet Chopper is a Harley Brand Others