(It is recommended that you print this document for your reference.)

MKTG 310: MARKETING RESEARCH
Course Syllabus
Spring 2008
Instructor: Dr. Michael Hyman
Professor of Marketing
New Mexico State University
Voice Phone: 646-5238
Fax: 646-1498 (office)
e-mail:  mhyman@nmsu.edu

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Objectives

MKTG 310 addresses the use of marketing research as an aid to making marketing decisions; specifically, how the information used to make marketing decisions is gathered and analyzed. Accordingly, MKTG 310 is appropriate for both prospective users of research results and prospective marketing researchers.

After this course, you should:

• be able to translate a marketing problem into a feasible research question;
• appreciate marketing research as a process that involves a sequence of activities, each compatible with the preceding activities;
• have a general understanding of the strengths and weaknesses of alternative research designs;
• be aware of the many sources of marketing information and the various means for gathering such information;
• be more sensitive to the biases and limitations of marketing data and basic data analysis;
• have a general understanding of univariate and basic bivariate data analysis techniques (i.e., should be able to decide when a technique is appropriate and understand the managerial implications of analytical results); and
• be able to design and execute a basic survey research project.

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Required Textbook and Recommended Texts

The textbook for this course is:

• Marketing Research, 1^st edition, by Donald R. Cooper and Pamela S. Schindler, McGraw-Hill/Irwin, 2006.  

Studying the assigned textbook is critical to your success in this course; in addition to reinforcing the instructor's PowerPoint lectures, roughly 25% of all exam questions are drawn from it. New and used hardbound copies may be bought from the NMSU bookstore and various online booksellers, such as Bigwords.com, eCampus.com, VarsityBooks.com, and efolletts.com.

Alternatively, an electronic copy of the textbook is available from the McGraw-Hill/Irwin eBookstore. To purchase an electronic copy, try the following procedure, which I received in an e-mail from the publisher:

• Go to: http://ebooks.primisonline.com/
• Click on Register (near the top of the screen).
• Follow the prompts to request a username and password. (This action will not obligate you to purchase anything; it merely  allows you access to browse the site. If you register but do not purchase at that time, you will need to enter your username and password the next time you visit the eBookstore site. If you forget your access codes, click on the Forgot Your Password? link.)

After you are registered, you will receive confirmation that you are logged in. You may then hit the Browse radio button (top of the screen) to browse the titles or make a purchase. For specific instructions, please follow the bullets below. (Note that you may skip the first bullet if you are already logged onto the site.)

• Go to: http://ebooks.primisonline.com/
• Click on the McGraw-Hill eBooks picture icon
• Read the Options on the 5 Easy Steps screen
• Click Next
• Click on the appropriate country in the drop down box
• Click Next
• Click on the appropriate state in the drop down box
• Click Next
• Click on the appropriate school in the drop down box
• Click Next
• Click on the appropriate course in the drop down box
• Click Next
• This is the text you should find:
  
      ISBN: 0390553867
      Pages: 782
      Price (in US funds): $65.82

Follow the prompts for purchase after clicking on the Buy eBook radio button. NOTE: you will need to select the Online Viewing or Download options.

To help you choose between a hardbound or electronic copy of the textbook, please note the following information I received from the publisher:

• When students download the text on their computer, they own the text for life. There is no expiration date.

• When students choose the online viewing option, they get four times the pages in the book in view credits and a print credit per each page. These credits can be used however students choose. For example, students can view page 1 50 times and page 2 once. Each viewing is subtracted from the total.

• The print credit is one per page. If there are 250 pages in the book, students may print whatever pages they choose up to 250 pages. Students who exhaust their print credits or view credits can call the publisher at 800-962-9342 for another copy. (I assume at no cost, but the publisher was vague on this issue.)

Two of Dr. Hyman's online PowerPoint lectures draw extensively from the following texts, which are not required for successful completion of MKTG 310:

• How to Lie with Charts, by Gerald E. Jones, Sybex, 1995.
• Mail and Internet Surveys: The Tailored Design Method, 2^nd edition, by Don A. Dillman, Wiley, 1999.

Students who want to improve their exam-taking skills may benefit from reading the following book:

• Exam Success, by David McIlroy, Sage Publications, 2005.

These excellent desk references serve as optional readings that may be purchased from any online book vendor.

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Computer Requirements

Access to all course materials other than the textbook requires a Microsoft Windows-based PC with the following features:

In addition, the following software is required or recommended:

Installation programs for the free reader or players listed above are hyperlinked to the above program names. Because all exams are administered over WebCT, an internet connection is required. Non-textbook-related course content is available either online or via a DVD; viewing some of this content requires Adobe Acrobat Reader and either Real Media Player or MS Windows Media Player.

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Exams

The exams--consisting of 60 objective items--are limited to material assigned since the previous exam. (In other words, the exams for each module are limited to the content of each module.) The additional readings and videos are intended as supplementary materials; thus, all exam questions are based on the textbook (roughly 25%) and the instructor's PowerPoint lectures (roughly 75%). All exams will be administered over WebCT. You must answer each exam question in turn, i.e., you will be unable to return to a skipped question. Exams may be taken any time during the 14-hour window--from 9am to 11pm--in which they are open. There is a 70-minute window for completing each exam; WebCT will not grade any questions answered after that period.

You will have two opportunities to take an exam over each of the five course modules. There will be no minimum waiting time between those opportunities. Only your highest score on the two attempts will count toward your final grade. If your score on the first attempt is acceptable to you, then you may skip the subsequent attempt. Your grade will be posted on WebCT.

Important Caveat

MKTG 310 is more like an accounting course than a marketing course in that MKTG 310 is very detail-oriented.  Success in most marketing courses relies on your ability to apply basic principles. In contrast, success in most accounting courses requires you to master a large set of specific rules. (This is a broad, but essentially fair, characterization.) The value of a marketing research study is only as great as its weakest aspect. The findings of a such a study will be of limited, if any, use to a marketing manager unless (1) the correct problem is identified, (2) the correct research questions are asked, (3) a proper study is designed, (4) a proper population is sampled, (5) a proper data analysis is performed, and (6) a proper evaluation of that analysis is made and reported.  Unfortunately, the devil is in the details when it comes to marketing research. Hence, the detailed knowledge required to perform well on MKTG 310 exams may be unexpected given your previous experience with marketing courses.

Grade Appeals

To ensure that students receive the grade they deserve, extra credit is awarded to students who identify problematic questions. For the opportunity to receive extra credit, you must e-mail Dr. Hyman (mhyman@nmsu.edu) and explain your reason(s) for believing a question is problematic. If he finds your reasoning sound, then you will receive extra credit equivalent to answering that question correctly on an exam. (Note: Extra credit is awarded for identifying a problematic question on any administered exam; it is not limited to the exam on which you received the highest score.) 

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Course Points

The maximum points you can earn for each grade component are as follows:

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Grading Scale

The grading scale is as follows: 

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E-mail Announcements

Dr. Hyman may use e-mail to make course-related announcements. Unless otherwise indicated, he will use your NMSU e-mail address. (Note: E-mail providers such as Yahoo and Hotmail frequently block e-mails from NMSU addresses.)

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Class Schedule

This course is divided into five modules. Basically, these five modules cover the following topics:

• introduction to marketing research,
• questionnaire design,
• non-survey-based research and research designs,
• sampling, research ethics, and research report writing, and
• simple data analysis.

All lectures, which are in PowerPoint format, are available either online or from the course DVD. PowerPoint (PPT) presentations designated below by the word Textbook were created by the authors of the textbook for the online version of MKTG 310; presentations designated below by the word Instructor were created by Dr. Hyman. The Instructor presentations include both .jpg insertions and audio clips (i.e., pre-recorded discussions of slides by Dr. Hyman). Although adding such content to Dr. Hyman's PowerPoint presentations allows asynchronous delivery of lectures, such content also greatly increases the size of PowerPoint presentations.  As a result, some of the Instructor presentation files are 30+ megabytes, which take roughly 90 minutes to download via a 56k modem. Thus, you should only use a broadband Internet connection to access these files online.

If you do not have a copy of PowerPoint and if your browser cannot handle PowerPoint files, then click on this hyperlink for the file reader installation program. (Note: This reader was downloaded from the Microsoft web site.) The articles, book excerpts, and samples are pdf files, which may be viewed and printed via Adobe Acrobat reader. If you do not have a copy, click on this hyperlink for the installation program.

To play the video (wmv or mpg) files available either online or from the course DVD, a copy of either Real Media Player or MS Windows Media Player must be installed on your PC. Although both players are free, the latter is "only available to customers running genuine Microsoft Windows" (quote from Microsoft website).

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Module 1 

Note:

DVD/Video items denoted by DVD: are mpg files on the DVD bundled with the textbook assigned to the online version of MKTG 310. These files are roughly 125 megabytes. All other DVD/Video items are wmv files hyperlinked to this syllabus.  Although most wmv files are from 20 to 30 megabytes, one is more than 42 megabytes. Regardless, you should only use a broadband Internet connection to access these files online.

Additional Materials are from the following sources:

• Student DVD--Additional Chapter-Related Material
• articles from Marketing News (a bi-monthly publication of the American Marketing Association), and
• articles from Marketing Research (a quarterly publication of the American Marketing Association).

Articles, book excerpts, and samples are pdf files and available by left clicking the appropriate hyperlink. These files may be viewed and printed with Adobe Acrobat reader.  Most of these files are less than 1 megabyte.

Although the additional (i.e., non-textbook) readings and DVD/Video content provide excellent supplements to the instructor's PowerPoint lectures and Cooper and Schindler textbook, no exam question is based exclusively on those supplements. 

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Module 2  

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Module 3 

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Module 4

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Module 5

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Bonus Material: Multivariate Statistics

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Final Notes

Dropping the Course. Although Dr. Hyman may drop students administratively, students remain responsible for dropping this course.

Incomplete Grades. Under university policy, you may only receive an 'I' grade if you have a passing grade at mid-semester (the last day to withdraw from a class) and are precluded from successful completion of the second half of the course by a documented illness, documented death, family crisis, or other similar circumstances beyond your control. An incomplete cannot be given to avoid assigning a grade for marginal or failing work. Requirements for removal of an 'I' grade will be clearly stated on the 'I' grade form and you will receive a copy of that form. Incompletes do not automatically convert to 'F's if the course is not completed.

Cheating. Cheating is defined as (1) submitting another person's work as your own work, or (2) using any external source to answer exam questions. Any student caught cheating on an assignment or exam will receive a permanent 0 (zero) for that assignment or exam.

Students with Disabilities. If you have or believe you have a disability and would benefit from any accommodations, you may wish to self-identify by contacting the Services for Students with Disabilities (SSD) Office located in Garcia Annex (phone: 646-6840). If you have already registered, please make sure that your instructor receives a copy of the accommodation memorandum from SSD within the first week of classes. It is your responsibility to inform either your instructor or SSD representative in a timely manner if services/accommodations provided are not meeting your needs.

If you have a condition which may affect your ability to exit safely from the premises in an emergency or which may cause an emergency during class, you are encouraged to discuss any concerns with the instructor and/or the SSD Coordinator. Feel free to call Ms. Elva Telles (EEO/ADA and Employee Relations Director) at 646-3333 with any questions about the Americans with Disabilities Act (ADA) and/or section 504 of the Rehabilitation Act of 1973. All medical information will be treated confidentially.

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