Question

• Identify the type of report • State its purpose: analytical or informational; • Indicate what information the audience would need and what type of research would be needed: primary or secondary; • Choose the appropriate medium: Memo, Letter, Email, Formal report, White Paper, For each response,

don't forget to explain why you answered as you did.

Analyze to understand purpose and report type:

For each of the following questions, identify the type of report you would write. Is primarily informational or analytical?

a. Has our new marketing plan met our sales objetives?

b. Why are so many of our widgets being returned as defective?

c. Are we on track with our project?

d. Can our clients, Rose’s Bakery, afford to open a new store next year?

e. Who is responsible for the property damage in our client’s building? The construction crews? The painters? The tenants? The maintenance staffs?

f. What new sales leads did you develop at the trade show?

Answer 1

a.     The purpose of marketing plan is to find out the demand and requirement of customers, their taste and preference. It is informational report because in order to plan for marketing it is necessary for the marketing team to conduct research in the market and to collect the required data from the potential customers. An effective marketing research and marketing plan will help to maximize the sales . The type of data to be collected from the customer is primary data through a structured Questionnaire .Formal report is the appropriate medium where the marketing manager has to prepare the marketing plan.

b) It is an analytical type of research where there is need to analyze the reasons for defective . The researcher can use secondary data where the defective rates of widgets have to be collected for different period of time and the collected data can be analyzed using various statistical quality control tools . Formal report has to be prepared by the researcher related to the research problem with methodology , data analysis, findings and suitable suggestions to eliminate or to reduce the defects.

c. A project like development of software or construction of building is a project type production system . It is a analytical type of research , where the researcher has to analyze the secondary data which is already existing data , collected through various sources. This data help the team to monitor and track the progress of the project . The appropriate medium   to track the progress of the project is through email or letter the project manager can share the information with other team members.

d. It is an analytical type of research study To open a new store there is need to conduct a market study and have to analyze the market. It is necessary to study the level of competition in the market , taste and preference of customers, demographic profile , economic condition of the people etc., A formal report has to be prepared to determine the feasibility of opening a new store next year.

e) The type of report is technical report and the type of research is analytical type. It is vital for the researcher to collect the data on various types of damages in the building and to analyse the data using SQC tools to find out the reasons for the damages . A formal report has to be prepared by the researcher that includes the property damages, value of damages , causes for damages and its impacts .

f) Trade show is a way of   displaying various company products which are similar , at one place where various customers can view all the company products . It is one of the method to find new customers and to improve the sales . It is a informational type of research where the team can collect the details of the potential customers interested to buy the products A detailed report about the customers can be prepared by the sales team . This information will help the sales person to contact the customers in future to make their sales successfully.