Question

Welcome Inc. is a chain of fast-food restaurants located in major metropolitan areas in the South. Sales have been growing very slowly for the last two years. Management has decided to add some new items to the menu, but first, managers want to know more about their customers and their preferences.
What kind of research design/s would you recommend? Why? Also, recommend various data-collection technique/s to be used in the chosen design/s. Provide the rationale.
5. Rohtak Police wants to find out if the level of alcohol consumed by the driver impacts his braking response time. The Police Superintendent suspects that ‘age of the driver’ and ‘mobile phone usage during driving’ might also affect the braking response time. They hire you to reach conclusions regarding the matter using experiments.
(a) Identify the dependent and independent variable/s for your experiment. Which Statistical Design would you adopt for your investigation? And why?
(b) Graphically present all the main effects and interaction effects possible in this case. Make hypothetical scenarios with the following levels:
Level of Alcohol
Low, Medium, High
Age of the driver
Young, Old
Mobile usage
Yes, No

Answer 1

In reference to the context it is evident that the restaurants are unable to grow their business and this is happening due to the lack of research being conducted over a year in order to evaluate customer preferences. It is very important to note that restaurants must remain in trend in order to drive the sales growth. The customers should not feel outdated with the ambience and the overall customer service experience. It is always better to read reviews on portals about competitors, ask the customers about their feedback, if they are registered then surveys must be sent to them to better understand consumer behavior.

Periodic researches must be conducted to comprehend customer’s changing preferences with time. I would suggest qualitative and quantitative research options. Let us now understand each one in details and find out the various ways through which data will be collected.

Qualitative research methodology:

In this research technique we will focus more on customer feedbacks and reviews, this research will help us to understand the though process of the customers regarding the restaurant. This will help us to identify similar opinions and work on improving those factors that are listed by most of the customers.

The very first way to gather data in this type of research is to conduct brief interactions with customers or a focus group. This can be the most effective ways to gather data from the very source for whom the change the required. The interaction can be done on a particular day or it can be done after the customer has finished their food, there can be ads on social media platforms inviting volunteers for this interview in return of discount coupons on food of their choice as per the menu.

It is very important to collect information related to demographics (age, gender, profession, marital status, children, income bracket etc.) in order to get a clear idea at the time of analyzing the various opinions or feedback.

To make the interaction more effective the interaction or interview with the volunteers and/or customers must be recorded and posted on social media platforms after permission from the customer to recognize the opinions of everyone. This will be a double advantage for the company as they will be able to refer back to the interviews for reference and at the same tie it will also help them to strengthen their brand image on social media platforms as more and more viewers share the posts.

Quantitative research methodology:

In this technique the focus will be on the maximum amount of votes given to a particular change or improvement in the restaurant or the menu. This research will help us to identify what type of change id demanded by maximum number of customers. Collecting data in this method is much simpler as it can be achieved through online polls and surveys.

The same survey will be made available in the restaurants as well for the customers to capture their quick opinion for the menu. Through qualitative research we will get a lot of opinion for adding different types of food items or dishes to the menu but through quantitative research we will be able to narrow down the opinion and preferences to the most sough food items and dishes and will be able to include the same in the new menu.

Through this research also customers will feel valued once they start seeing their suggested food item on the menu, this research methodology can also be done periodically by making a survey listing all the trends and then sharing it to the customers for their opinion to find out the most preferred trend.

5.a) Let us first understand the concept of dependent and independent variables. Independent variables are those variables that are subject to be controlled during an experiment and at the same time dependent variables as the name suggest are the dependent on independent variables and a change in independent variables will reflect change on dependent variables as well.

In this case change in age of the driver and mobile phone usage will impact the driver’s braking response time. Therefore level of alcohol, age and mobile phone usage are independent variables and braking response time is a dependent variable.

I will use sample size determination as the statistical design to study the impact of the braking response of the drivers in this scenario. The benefit of this method is it will help to identify patterns of a large population with just a small sample size. Though assumptions made might inaccurate at times but it is definitely time and cost effective method of experiment giving fruitful results.