Question

Assume that you are a marketing director for a medium Omani company. and you intend to conduct a study on the effect of the current pandemic COVID-19 coronavirus on your company sales. based on what you have learned in chapter four answer on the following

A. Who will do this research? Why.

B. Discuss and explain in details how you can apply the six steps involved in your research.

C. What are the advantages and disadvantages of using each of the following contact methods: Mail or online Questionnaire, Telephone Interview, and Personal Interview?

Answer 1

A)

The effect of COVID 19 on the company’s sales will be conducted by the marketing and research department.

This is because it is the responsibility of the marketing team to monitor the sales. They are responsible for boosting the sale so anything that affects the sales positively or negatively is within the perspective of the Marketing team.

B)

The Steps involved in the Research of the Marketing team are

· Initial step here involves defining the problem. The problem in the particular case deals with the effect of COVID 19 on the sales of the company.

· 2nd step is to develop a research plan which deals with how exactly you intend to solve the problem and what it is exactly that you are trying to solve.

· Then the next step involves collection of Data. In marketing research, most of the data you collect will be quantitative (numbers or data) versus qualitative, which is descriptive and observational.

· The collected data needs to be analysed to find the findings. The findings from the analysis needs to reported.

· Next step involves developing solutions in response to the finds from the analysis.

· Finally the solutions developed above needs to be implemented.

C)

Questionnaires
Advantages	Disadvantages
Inexpensive	Dishonest answer
Practical	Skipped questions
Fast Results	Interpretation Issues
Easy Analysis	Lack of personalization
No pressure on respondent	Analysis issues
Telephonic interview
Advantages	Disadvantages
Large reach	Effectiveness depends on interviewer
Personalized	May be negatively perceived by interviewee
Cost effective	Must be kept short
Quick and Effective	Not everyone has phone
Personal Interview
Advantages	Disadvantages
Accurate Screening	High Cost
Capture Verbal and non-verbal cues	Effectiveness depends on interviewer
Keep focus	Manual data entry
Capture Emotion and behaviour	Limited Sample size