MARK 4338 Information for Marketing Decisions (Undergraduate)

Instructor: Ye Hu, yehu.mark4338@gmail.com
Office hours: by appointment
Office: 375K Melcher Hall
Classroom: TBD
Syllabus

Introduction

The goal of the course is to familiarize students with how to collect and apply information for marketing decisions. The process involves developing research questions, collecting data, analyzing it and drawing inferences, with a view to making better business decisions. To this end, the course is organized into two basic parts: (1) Data Collection and Research Design and (2) Tools and Applications of Market Research.

The objectives of this course are:

  1. To improve the student's problem definition skills. To properly engage in marketing research it is critical to assess when and how this research should be performed.
  2. Evaluate research design and data collection. Students will be introduced to sources of data and corresponding procedures to analyze these types of data.
  3. To provide the student with the necessary skills to implement a research design selection of a data collection method, development of the data collection instrument, sample design, and the actual collection of the data.
  4. Be able to competently review and criticize research, appraise its usefulness to management, and have some experience with certain phases of the research process.

To achieve these objectives we will use a combination of lectures, cases, class discussion, and hands-on exercises. Assignments will be in the form of readings from the text, case preparation, and data analysis exercises.

Prerequesite: Introduction to Marketing and Business Statistics or their equivalents are required.