Assignment Overview:

• You are required to plan a mixed-methods marketing research project for an organization wishing to understand consumer attitudes to their products and/or services, due to COVID 19. You can choose any organization or sector, e.g. BordFailte in research on incoming tourists or ‘staycations’, Ryanair or Aer Lingus on people’s attitudes to flying and foreign holidays, or a hotel or local business trying to plan how to best manage in maximizing customer service and turnover. You can also decide which facets to focus on in terms of the organization’s business issue and marketing problem.
• From there you should then set out your overall research objective and 3-5 specific objectives that will achieve the overall research objective (see slides and template for a group project on how to do this).
• In planning your research it should contain:
  1. A mix of primary and secondary research
  2. A mix of qualitative and quantitative data collection methods (at least one of each).
  3. Briefly state what methodology you will use for each sub-objective, referring to relevant academic literature, including the course text and recommended readings.
• Choose one sub-objective that requires qualitative research (i.e. focus group, interviews, or qualitative observations – either face-to-face or online), and conduct primary research on thisDiscuss the secondary research sources you used to guide your research (research methodology and content related).
• Indicate how you conducted your field research in your methodology section, with supporting documentation, e.g.Include a planning document for your field research in the appendices and refer to this in your appendices (e.g. theme sheet, discussion sheet, observations plan)
• Include a transcript of your interview or detailed observation notes for a focus group or detailed observation notes for a qualitative observation study (in appendices).
• Discuss why the methods you chose were most relevant for the sub-object you chose to research.
• Discuss the limitations relating to the data collection method you have chosen to adopt.
• Indicate how you conducted your analysis in the methodology section
• Indicate how you complied with DCU research ethics and data protection/GDPR issues in your methodology section.
• Your findings and analysis section should focus on discussion and analysis of relevant insights from your qualitative research, with a view to:Making relevant recommendations to the organisation.
• Planning quantitative research by way of a survey as a follow-up to the qualitative phase of research.
• Refer to DCU referencing guidelines, and Harvard Style, for your in-text citations and bibliography.
• Develop a follow-up survey to address some of your other research sub-objectives and to follow up on the qualitative research you conducted.Indicate the various methods you will use to conduct, and analyse and report on your quantitative research.
• Include a copy of a ‘ready to go’ survey in the appendices.
• Indicate how you will conduct your field research for the survey in the appendices.