see any important ethical issues raised in the case? What are they? What other issues are raised in the case that are important?

Appendix A

MARKETING RESEARCH CASE-SCENARIO

1 It was late Saturday afternoon in mid 2 December, and Bob Smith, a research analyst for 3 L&H Marketing Research, was working furiously to 4 complete the media plan portion of the Standard 5 Grooming Products report. Standard was 6 considering introducing a men's hairspray and 7 needed demographic characteristics and media 8 habits of male hairspray users, as well as attitudinal 9 information about such product attributes as

10 oiliness, stickiness, masculinity and fragrance. 11 The findings were to be presented 12 Monday afternoon, and a long series of 13 problems and delays had forced Bob to come in 14 on Saturday to finish the report. Complicating 15 matters, Bob felt that his boss, Barry Michaels, 16 expected the statistical analysis to be consistent 17 with L&H's initial recommendations to Standard. 18 Bob, Barry and Marjorie Glass, from Standard's 19 advertising agency, were to meet Monday 20 morning to finalize L&H's presentation to 21 Standard.

22 Back in September, Bob had

23 recommended surveying 250 users of men's 24 hairspray from each of 15 metropolitan areas. 25 Charles Chastain from Standard's marketing 26 department had argued that conclusions about 27 local usage in each city would not be accurate 28 unless each city's sample size was proportional 29 to its population. That is, the sample sizes for 30 larger cities should be larger than for smaller 31 cities. Furthermore, Charles feared that males 32 in metropolitan areas differed from rural males 33 on usage or other important characteristics.

34 Bob finally convinced Charles that 35 sample sizes proportional to population would 36 mean only 25 to 50 interviews in some smaller 37 cities too few to draw statistically valid 38 conclusions. Furthermore, expanding the survey 39 to include rural users would have required 40 committing more money to the project money 41 Standard didn't want to spend.

42 In October, a Des Moines, Iowa, pretest 43 revealed that the questionnaire's length was 44 driving the cost per completed interview to about 45 $18. Total expenses would be well over budget 46 if that cost held for the 15 metro areas. If the 47 survey costs exceeded $65,000 (counting the 48 pilot study), precious little money would be left 49 for the focus groups, advertising, and packaging 50 pretesting in L&H's contract with Standard (see 51 Table One).

52 Since Standard was a new account with 53 big potential, a long term relationship with them 54 would be valuable. (Business at L&H had been 55 slow this past year.) Feeling "under the gun," 56 Bob met with Barry and Charles, who agreed 57 to reduce the sample to 200 men in each of only 58 11 metropolitan areas.

Phone Survey (including pilot study)

Focus Group Study

Advertising Pretesting Package Pretesting

Miscellaneous Expenses Proposed Total

Expenses

$58,000

8,000

25,000

14,000

5,000

$110,000

Table One - Proposed Budget

59 In early November, a new problem arose. 60 After surveying eight metro areas, Bob discovered 61 that his assistant had accidentally deleted all 62 questions on media habits from the questionnaire 63 given to L&H's vendor for the phone interviews. 64 When told of the missing questions problem, 65 Barry and Charles became visibly angry at the 66 vendor. After much discussion, they decided there 67 was too little time to hire a new vendor and 68 resample the eight areas. Therefore, they agreed 69 to re-insert the media questions for the remaining 70 three cities and just finish the survey. 71 Bob's task now was to make the most of 72 the data he had. Because responses from each 73 of the three cities were reasonably similar, and 74 each city came from a different region (east, 75 west and midwest), Bob felt confident that the 76 three-city data were representative. Therefore, 77 he decided to base the media plan on the large 78 differences between his results and the national 79 averages for adult men making sports 80 magazines and newspapers the primary 81

82 vehicles for Standard's advertising (see Table 83 Two).

84 Bob's confidence in the media plan was 85 bolstered by a phone conversation with Marjorie 86 Glass. Until a short time ago, her agency had 87 handled the advertising for American Toiletries, so 88 she had valuable information about this 89 competitor's possible responses to Standard's new 90 product. Marjorie liked Bob's recommendations, 91 thought Charles would also approve, and agreed to 92 support the media plan in Monday's meeting. 93 Indeed, Bob thought, Marjorie had been a big help. 94 The Standard project had put a great 95 deal of stress on Bob, who hated spending 96 weekends away from his family especially near 97 Christmas! If the presentation went well and more 98 business was forthcoming, Bob suspected he 99 would be spending even more weekends here.

100 But if the presentation went poorly or the data 101 collection errors became an issue, then Standard 102 might look elsewhere for market research, thus 103 jeopardizing Bob's future with L&H. Either way, 104 he felt apprehensive.

Three-City Sample

Magazines: At least 1 subscription of... News Entertainment

Sports

Other

28%

4

39

9

Newspaper Subscription (at least one daily)

35

Favorite Radio Format Pop/Rock Country

EZ Listening

News/Talk

Other

51

26

7

5

11

All U.S. Men

19%

3

20

6

14

48

37

6

4

5

Hours Watching TV per week Total 17.5 23.5 Dramas 6.3 8.4

Comedies 7.8 7.3

News 1.1 3.9

Other 2.3 3.9

Table Two - Comparison of Media Habits

Three City Sample of Male Hairspray Users vs. U.S. Adult Males