Lone Pine Kennel Club

Jack Thornton leaned back in his chair and scratched Blue, his favorite bird dog, be-hind the ear. Jack was the president of the Lone Pine Kennel Club (LPKC) and a great believer in animal causes. In fact, Jack had taken the lead in moving the club beyond its primary mission of training hunting and show dogs to putting together a foundation to raise financial support for the local animal shelter. This Basic Animal Relief Foundation (BARF), however, was struggling with its fund raising efforts. LPKC is a voluntary organization made up of dog enthusiasts. The club is located in a metropolitan area with a population of about 75,000 in an otherwise largely rural, southern state. Given the rural nature of the area, outdoor recreation activities including hunting and fishing are a major pastime for residents. Pickup trucks with a dog in the back are an everyday sight. Unfortunately, being rural also means that the socio-economic status of the local population was not particularly high, despite the club being located in a metropolitan area. And there were always plenty of good causes seeking donations from the populace at any given time. Jack wondered how and to what extent these factors played into his current concerns about raising money for animal care. He believed that residents probably had a soft spot in their hearts for dogs and other pets needing a proper home. But with money tight for many people and given the competing demands for the charitable dollar, Jack despaired that BARF would not be able to reach its financial goals in support of animal relief. BARF's last fundraiser produced modest results at best. Intuitively Jack believed that there were just not enough people who really knew enough about the Lone Pine Kennel Club and BARF to give to its cause. He was willing to bet that while a great many people owned pets, this was their main focus as far as animals were concerned. If true, this meant that not many had ever been to the local animal shelter, much less adopted a pet from there or gave any thought to its support. While Jack harbored his suspicions about the situation, he truly believed that taking care of derelict animals was a cause worth pursuing. But he also knew that his personal commitment to LPKC and his love of dogs might be coloring his expectations about BARF and its fundraising. He now believed that a more objective view and analysis would be necessary to get to the bottom of the problems behind BARF. So he wanted to bring in a market research firm to do a study of the local situation as it related to BARF's efforts in support of the animal shelter.

To get his money's worth out of the study, Jack knew he had some planning to do. With pen in hand he began to jot down his thoughts. Jack saw the fundamental purpose of the study as improving donations to local animal relief efforts by determining the public's awareness of the local animal shelter and BARF, and the populace's willingness to contribute to animal control and care. To more tightly focus the study, Jack next developed some goals for the research team to pursue. He believed they should uncover public opinions on the following: 1. concern over stray animals, 2. knowledge of animal shelter locations, 3. condition and treatment of animals at the shelter, 4. interest in adopting animals housed by the shelter, 5. BARF's role in raising funds to support the shelter.

And from the above, the research should: 1. develop conclusions and recommendations to improve BARF's performance. As Jack finished writing these notes, he felt like he was on the right track with the market research idea and that he now had the plan basics that he could talk to a research firm about and let them take it from there. He looked over at Blue and smiled. As the dog stirred, Jack knew it was time for them to enjoy a walk together in the cool night air.

1. What are the major management issues, research objectives, and research methodology.