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Friday 21 September 2012

GM 07 Research Methodology: contact us for answers at assignmentssolution@gmail.com

GM 07
Research Methodology



1.    What are the types of market research? In present day business, explain the usage of market research, with reference to : a) Product Planning, b) Pricing, c) Physical Distribution & d) Promotional & Advertising

2.    When dealing with any market research project, what points should be kept into mind while defining the problem? Briefly explain the advantages of considering these points while defining a research purpose?

3.    Comment on the under mentioned statement :
`A sample may be large yet worthless because it is not random, or it may be random but unreliable because it is small’  Also, explain the importance of sampling in normal quantitative research studies.

4.    Write short notes on the mentioned topics :
a)    Objective characteristics and inferred characteristics
b)    Usage of weighted scales
c)    Editing of primary data
d)    Operating & Strategic decisions
e)    Decision making unit

Section B

ONE DELHI BASED FLOUR MILL - PRODUCT LAUNCH :

In 1992, one of the Delhi based flour mills had planned out a new product launch. This was a salty snack, that was to be launched.  They deputed a professional market research firm for this pre-launch study. Basically they demanded from the study, a) Market acceptance of their product, b) Acceptability  in which specific `Socio Economic Classification’ of  Delhi’s consumer market and finally c) The product branding that will ideally suit their launch. Their accounts section, based on the product manufacturing raw cost and distribution cost, derived that the ideal pricing for the 500 grams pack would be Rs.5.50 .

After completing the pre-launch study they launched their product. As per the study, their prime target segment was the students from the middle & upper middle class families. They advertised also on the satellite channels for various family based serials and few local English dailies.

After three months of launch, their Accounts MIS showed sale of the product was less than 50 % of the expected sales. The retail placement was also proper, but somehow their product was not getting the expected market turnover.

As per their marketing departments recommendation, again the Research firm was contacted, and responsibility was given out to derive the reason for this low market acceptance. The result was derived, the price at which they had launched their product, was a bit under their target segments assessment. The ideal pricing came out to be Rs.8.00 to Rs.10.00 per pack. They had to re-launch their product, and in the process the cycle of Re-Branding, Promotion and all this aspects had to be redone. This time thankfully, their accounts section 1st quarter post-launch  data showed Productivity .

Question :

1.    If you were the one who had the responsibility to formulate the pre-launch study, design a suitable proposal for the same
2.    Also, if you decide to use survey design the questionnaire that you would use for the same. If you decide not to use survey, how will you solve the problem.





GM 07
Research Methodology

Assignment II

Assignment Code: 2012 GM 07 B2         Last Date of Submission: 15th November 2012
                                      Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all the questions. All questions carry equal marks.

Section A

1.   
(a)    What is the difference between a management problem and a research problem?
(b)    How many types of errors may be encountered in a marketing research? What are the methods of minimizing such research errors?
2.   
(a)    What is the difference between Quantitative and Qualitative research ?
(b)    Which of the following questions can be tested experimentally and which can not? Where a test is possible, briefly suggest an approach. Where a test is not possible, explain why?
i.    Do children from urban areas drink more coffee and less milk than those from suburban areas?
ii.    Would frequent shoppers reactions to a retailer changing his store layout differ from those of infrequent shoppers?
iii.    Should a petrol pump provide a soft drink vending machine at the outlet?
iv.    How to compare the effectiveness of two faculty members teaching Quantitative Techniques to different sections in a management institute?
v.    How to sensitize DTC Bus drivers towards safe driving on Delhi roads?  

3.    Suppose, your company has spent a large amount on advertising its Products, what will be the methodology you will use to gauge the effectiveness of the same, from various segments like a) Whole Seller, b) Retailer & c) Consumers
4.    What are the bases on which Market Segmentation is created? Explain the segmentations with reference to Indian Consumer Market?



Section B

A PRINT MEDIA COMPANIES CHANGED PRESENTATION :

A Print media company, for the last 5 years were producing a monthly English magazine. This magazines basically covered all aspects, like main news from politics, sports, entertainment, kids specific, portion business etc. It was a 132 page magazine and had their target market as `English Magazine Readers – All India. The magazine through its subscription and commercial space sold had achieved `Break Even Point’. There was certain change in the top management, and as per their planning, they wanted to change this print production to an weekly periodical.
A Survey amongst the `Present Readers’ of the magazine was done, as to the topic choice, length of presentation, area that they want covered, style that they prefer and the like. The new magazine was launched, with proper promo and all. Post six months, the Research & Development wing of the magazine found, that `Gross Readership of the magazine has gone down, thus the commercial, rate and quantum space sold ratio has also declined
The management was a bit confused, because they had designed and edited the magazine as per the `Would be Readers Expectations’. They now wanted to study the reason for not achieving the same.

Question 5 :

a.    By deploying marketing research how will you ascertain the reasons for failure of this product?
b.    What kind of sampling method would you use and why?


HR01
Human Resource Management

Assignment I


Assignment Code: 2012 HR01 B1                                Last Date of Submission: 15th October 2012
                                               Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all Questions.  All questions carry equal marks.

Section A

1.    Explain how the increased globalization of business is making the contribution of human resource departments more important.                                     (20)

2.    Define and differentiate between Job Analysis, Job Description.  Discuss Job Evaluation Method and create a plan for evaluating jobs of Sales Persons at different levels in an organization.      (20)

3.    a.    Discuss briefly the importance of Human Resource Information Systems.

b.         What are the alternatives to recruitment?                              (10+10=20)

4.    As organizations become more global, human resource planning becomes more important and complex.  Explain.                                             (20)

Section B
Case Study

In one public sector undertaking, a line manager was appointed as the Chief of Personnel.  Within a year after taking up the assignment, he had to sign a wage agreement with the workers union.  Non-technical staff dominated the union at that time.  The union charter of demands favoured the interests of the dominant work group.  It asked for revision in gardener’s pay, but did not press for increase in the pay scales of workers in certain technical grades.  The management conceded these demands because the union cooperated with them in keeping the burden of pay revision well within the guidelines of the Bureau of Public Enterprises.

Once the agreement was signed and communicated, there was a commotion among the technical staff.  They walked out of the union, joined a separate technical staff union and marched around the company premises, holding placards which read – “Here grass Cutters get more than the gas cutters.  In the engineering assembly unit, till the pay revision occurred welding was highly rated job, but not any longer.  Now gardeners get more than welders”.


Questions:

1.      What happens if grass cutters get more than gas cutters?                          (5)
2.    Evaluate the approach of both management and union in the incident.                    (10)
3.    List the lessons learned. Suggest a way out of the problem on hand.                      (5)

HR01
Human Resource Management

Assignment II


Assignment Code: 2012 HR01 B2                            Last Date of Submission: 15th November 2012
                                                     Maximum Marks: 100

Attempt all Questions.  All questions carry equal marks.

Section A

1.    Discuss the meaning and significance of employee benefits.  Highlight different types of benefits provided to employees in India?                                    (20)

2.    How would you formulate the aims and objectives of a training program?  Explain with an example.  How are training needs identified for different levels of employees in an organization?                                                                           (20)

3.    Performance Appraisal has been of significance since times immemorial.  Compare the traditional and modern methods of performance appraisal.                            (20)

4.    Write short notes on the following:

a.    Career Planning
b.    Collective Bargaining
c.    Employee Empowerment
d.    Future of Indian Industrial Relation Scenario                          (4x5=20)


Section B
Case Study

The information technology software services company decided to be proactive.  The top management believed it was well placed to bag a project for which it had put in a bid and the HR department of the company was informed accordingly.  The HR department set the ball rolling for recruitment.  On recruitment process being over, they started investing for training the new recruits in order to have their skills required for the project to take off .When training of executives was nearing completion, a bad news came in that the contract was awarded to one of their competitors.  The bad time for the company was not yet over.  The company which bagged the contract for the project could pick up most of the trained professionals from the losing company.  In the process the company got a severel jolt.

Questions:

1.    On which counts did the losing company get the jolt and why?

2.     What is the learning point from HR angle out of this incident and how could have such a situation been averted?                                                   (10+10=20)

MM01
Marketing Management

Assignment I

Assignment Code: 2012 MM01 B1                    Last Date of Submission: 15th October 2012
                        Maximum Marks: 100


Attempt all the questions.  All questions carry equal marks.

Section A

1 a)    What is meant by the marketing concept?
                                            (10)
b)    Explain what is meant by the terms social marketing and societal marketing?
(10)

2 a)    What factors should marketer take into account in scanning the marketing environment?
                                            (10)
b)    Write short notes on the following:-

(i)    BCG Matrix
(ii)    Ansoff matrix
(iii)    McKinsey 7s Framework
(iv)    4P’s and 4A’s of marketing
(4 x 2.5)

3    Do people know what they want? (And if they do will they tell you?) Then how does sales and marketing persons evaluate consumer needs and wants? Discuss.
   

4 a)    A major detergent manufacturer proposes spending 150 crores approx. on a twelve month national advertising campaign to promote an environmentally friendly washing liquid.  Advise the marketing director how the effectiveness of the campaign could be monitored?
                                            (8)
b)    Suggest appropriate ways of segmenting the markets for the following products or services : (a) rail travel; (b) banks; (c) ballpoint pens; (d) package holidays.
(6)
c)    Is positioning helpful for not for profit organizations? If so, how should a charity select and implement a positioning strategy?  
(6)


Section B
5.    Case Study
Hyderabad Batteries Ltd.

It was the summer of 2001 and Mr Reddy, an application engineer from the high-tech battery company HBL-NIFE, Hyderabad was on vacation in his native place.  He went to visit his friend who owned a factory there.  On the day of the visit he found that his friend was in deep distress.  The power had failed and the genset (the diesel powered standby generator) could not be started because the starting battery fitted near the genset suddenly went dead.  The factory had come to a grinding halt and the entire raw material in the batch being processed would have to be discarded unless the power was restored immediately.  The production manager was in a panic.  Since the factory was located 40 km away from the nearest town, getting a replacement battery would take at least a couple of hours.  This would not only mean the loss of material for one batch, but also the time lost in preparing for the next batch.

Mr.Reddy’s host was embarrassed and furious since this was not the first time that the battery had died on him.  He had replaced the battery only a year ago and never expected that he would have a problem since the battery seemed to be working the day before when he started the genset.  He asked Mr Reddy why battery manufacturers could not come up with a better battery for gensets considering that technological advancements could now fly a man to the moon.  This set Mr Reddy thinking.  Only the other day at HBL-NIFE he had received the Airforce approval for the new aeronautic battery, which was used for starting the aircraft.  If it could start an aircraft, why not a stationary genset?  This could be a new opportunity for his company.

Background

The requirement of power in the country is growing at a fairly substantial rate and the government-run power generation and distribution companies are finding it difficult to keep pace with the requirements.  Consequently, the user is affected by way of frequent power outages due to overloading of the main utility power grid.  This situation is more acute in some states when compared to others.  Process industries that require power on a continuous basis, as a rule, started having their own captive power generation since they could not depend on power from this main utility power grid.  Some smaller industries went for their own standby gensets.  In a few cases, users even installed UPS systems (Uninterrupted Power Supply) that use batteries to store and generate the backup power on demand.  However, since UPS power is very expensive, the UPS sytems are used typically to bridge the gap between power failure and genset starting.  Oehr user segment such as telecom depend on gensets to prevent a disruption in communications when standby batteries cannot address prolonged power outages.  Gensets are the most common standby power available today and it has become common for any industry utilizing electrical power to have its own gensets for providing backup power.

When the main power fails, the drill was to start up the genset promptly and the internal power distribution switched to the backup power so that essential operations could be continued.  Starting the gensets typically requires the use of batteries to power the DC starter motor. This DC motor requires a high current for a very short time (typically less than 5 seconds for a healthy engine) to crank the engine so that its RPM (rotational speed) builds up adequately so as to be self-sustaining. The type of battery being used is the automotive battery with the most common rating of 12 volt, 180 ampere hour capacity, which is widely used in all large transport vehicles such as trucks and buses.  The advantages of using these automotive batteries for genset starting are:

•    They are available from any battery shop and sometimes even an auto garage in small towns.  A lot of small battery-shops in remote areas refurbishing old batteries have also come up.
•    The cost of a 12 V, 180 Ah battery is approximately Rs 2000 which is well within the typical cash purchase limits of an ordinary organization.
•    Very competitive prices are given by some of the “backstreet boys” who recondition truck batteries and sell them to this secondary market-the genset and inverter.
•    No special expertise is required for maintaining the battery during usage.

The disadvantages of these batteries are

•    The life of the battery is only around 2 years for a new one and 1 year if it is a reconditioned one.
•    The battery deteriorates if it is underutilized.
•    Sudden death of a battery can be caused by corrosion of its terminals and leakage.  Self discharge of the battery is high and increases with the age of the battery.
•    A new battery needs to be formed (initial-charged) for 3 days before it can be put to use. Because of this long activation time, immediate or emergency replacement is not possible.
•    Battery is heavy and difficult to transport.
•    Regular maintenance is required to top-up the batteries with demineralized water and to carry out specific gravity checks on the electrolyte used in the battery.
•    Battery causes acid fumes and spillage, with associated damage to its immediate environment.  Even floor tiles and engine beds can be damaged.

Understanding the Consumer Needs

Back in the office, Reddy lost little time to discuss the opportunity with his colleagues and his GM and MD.  A quick survey was conducted by the company by using the personal interview method to collect data from a wide user base and the manufacturers of the gensets.  The following consumer needs emerged:

•    Yes, almost all consumers will welcome a more reliable battery. (The battery should be able to start the genset whenever required and respond instantly.  After all, the very purpose of the genset is to prevent disruptions due to break in power).
•    The ideal battery for genset starting must be maintenance free.  The genset maintenance staff are usually mechanically oriented with only peripheral knowledge of storage batteries.  (Even topping up and specific gravity checks should not be needed).
•    A one-to-one replacement for the battery must be available from the shelf in a ready-to-use condition.  If this feature is assured, they can think of buying a second battery and keeping it as a replacement spare in the tools and spares rack. (There should be no delay for activation by acid filling and first charging of the replacement battery).
•    It should have a very low self-discharge, suitable for storage on the shelf.  It should not deteriorate by infrequent use or insufficient recharging. (It should be able to start the genset even if it (the battery) has not been used for a month.  In many places the arrangement is such that the battery is charged only when the generator is in use with no provision for charging from mains during normal operation).
•    It should be intrinsically designed to give a large burst of power for a short time and also restore quickly.
•    It should not cost more than the battery presently being used.(User would not like to spend more than what he is currently doing whatever the other advantages may be)
•    Smaller and lighter battery is welcome. (Not considered too important)
•    Consumer would welcome features that will ensure safety while handling and in use. (No more nuisance of acid spills or corrosive fumes)
•    Consumers have been conditioned to think that the capacity of the battery is somehow important and is an assurance for reliable starts.  The engine room mechanics and electricians felt that a capacity of 180 Ah is necessary.

The HBL-NIFE Solution

The high-tech management of HBL-NIFE felt that here is a case where every one of the identified needs could be addressed and met.  The company had the good fortune that it was already in the field of developing special batteries for special needs.  Innovation and niche marketing have been the raison d’etre of the company.  They have been supplying starter batteries to the acronautic industry and developed very compact and reliable batteries for use on board as well as on ground.  The batteries were really compact, light weight, no-spill type and had extraordinary shelf-life and power.  The batteries were specially designed to “pack a punch”.  One such battery-the model XX could be used for starting gensets with slight modification.

The Business Equations

The derated capacity of batter XX was around 30 Ah.  This would “appear” low but in supplying short bursts of power as starter battery it is in fact superior to the 180 Ah automotive battery.  Due to its low leakage, and lower capacity its recharge needs are low.

HBL-NIFE, if it considers as having already recovered the hefty development charge, can afford to treat this new business as marginal and accept an ex-works price of Rs 1500 per battery for sizeable batch orders.  There are six major manufacturers of gensets buying 10,000 batteries per year and the replacement market is another 6000.  Even if 25% of this total can be captured, it would mean a new business of 4,000 batteries valued at Rs 6 million.

The main chunk of this new business will have to come out of the 10,000 automotive batteries of 180 Ah capacity sold by the established battery manufacturers to the siz OEMs, namely the genset manufacturers.  Increasing chunks from the replacement market will follow once the XX is fitted as OEM.  As far as competitor reaction is considered, there is nothing much to fear.  For the large manufacturers of automotive batteries the genset OEM segment is so small that they may not react.  The backstreet boys that feed the replacement market will react the only way they can do – that is using their local contacts and offering further price reductions.  But in the long run they have to give way to technology.

Price intelligence was that OEMs are procuring branded batteries at Rs 1900 and for replacements users pay around Rs 2500 for branded batters and Rs 1700 for reconditioned ones.

Case Questions

1.    Based on conventional wisdom, the entire market believes that 180 Ah capacity is needed.  Should HBL-NIFE disclose the capacity of its battery?
(5)
2.    How can brand awareness be created?  HBL-NIFE is known only in the Defence and major power house sectors.  Should they create a sub-brand for civil or genset market?  How should they capitalize on the features of battery XX? (reliable, ready-to-use, packed with power, can be called up when needed, midget with the power of a giant, etc.).  Will a new brand name be needed? (Many suggestions are being given-Vamana, Lightning, Acro, Alladin, Little Genie, Punch, Start Pack, Dynamic etc.)
(5)
3.    Should HBL-NIFE concentrate on the OEM? What should be the strategy for getting the battery type approved and specified by OEM? The battery constitutes less than 1% of the cost of the entire genset.  What will motivate the OEM, technology or price?
(5)
4.    Should HBL-NIFE offer a price lesser than the competing 180 Ah or a price higher on the ground that the item is technologically superiors?  The price policy should not upset the applecart by disturbing Defense, the main customer of HBL-NIFE.  It should ensure long-term maximum profitability in the civil sector.
(5)







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