In order to familiarize MBA students with the marketing research techniques and prepare them to succeed in their iLab consulting projects, Dr.Zou Deqiang was invited to share his expertise in this field at 604, Star building on 31th, Mar. Dr. Zou is the assistant professor of marketing at FDSM and had years’ research experience of consumer behavior and empirical model issues in marketing discipline.
Under the topic of Market Research: Action Oriented and Method Neutral, Dr.Zou used a milkshake case to illustrate how to use secondary data analysis, behavioral observation and interview to obtain the breakthrough insights and brainstorm action-oriented actionable recommendations. Through the case study, students have a better understanding of designing the exploratory research, descriptive research and causal research for ambiguous problems, somewhat defined problems, and clearly defined problems respectively.
Based on Dr Zou’s philosophy of be method neutral, the workshop focused on the way to choose the research design on basis of research questions rather than your preference. Through the a series of cases includes Groupons’ influences on reputation Airline industry, P&G $2 Day’s consumers and Starbuck’s Duetto VISA card, students got to know the importance of understanding the problem, addressing the question and uncovering the insights.
All students hope to more informative workshops like the one given by Dr Zou and look forward to apply these methodologies to the ilab consulting projects.
By IMBA Class2, Kathy Xie
