For each of the situations described below, which type of research is most appropriate for collecting primary data? Why?
a. Frank's Flies is a fishing lure manufacturer. Frank's management has decided to enter the lucrative market for trout flies, an area in which the company has little experience. The fly development department has decided that it needs more information concerning trout fishing in general before it can begin designing the new product line.
b. The management team at Aardvark Audio strongly suspects that the company's current advertising campaign is not achieving its stated goal of raising consumer awareness of the company's name to a 75% recognition level in the target market. The team has decided to commission a Research project to test the effectiveness of the various ads in the current campaign.
c. Ace Fertilizer Company is trying to decide where advertisements for its vegetable garden fertilizers should be placed. Management is contemplating a research project to determine which publications home gardeners read on a regular basis.
d. A high-speed copier company is introducing a new desktop model, and the vice president of communications is choosing between two advertising campaigns for this product. He prefers advertising campaign "A" because he believes it will generate more sales than would the second campaign, "B."
e. A local mail-order firm is concerned with improving its service. In particular, management wants to assess if customers are dissatisfied with current service and, if so, why they are dissatisfied.
f. The Write-It Company manufactures fountain pens, ballpoint pens, soft-tip pens, and mechanical pencils. Typically, these products are sold through small and large chains, drugstores, and grocery stores. The company has recently diversified into the manufacture of disposable cigarette lighters. The plan is to distribute this product through drugstores and grocery stores because managers believe that its target market of low- and middle-income consumers would use these outlets. The managers decided to conduct research to determine if this is the case.