"The aim of marketing is to know and understand the customer so well the product or service fits him and sells itself." Peter F. Drucker

Instructional Objectives: Students will learn why surveys are used. Students will gain an initial understanding of how to do market research.

Time Required: Two to four hours

Advance Preparation: Go to http://unitedstreaming.com and stream or download the video on market research to show on a projector or tvator connected to a television. (Free trial subscriptions are available; access is free for teachers in New York State.)  If your school does not have Internet access, you may want to save the Web pages for this lesson (I prefer using Netscape for this) or use WebWhacker to copy the pages onto a CD or disk. I also prefer to download the video from United Streaming and burn it on a CD.  Teachers should also visit http://kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listmarketinan.html and view links on developing surveys to get ideas before teaching this lesson.

Materials / Resources Required: Internet access, a projector, Excel, Word, PowerPoint

Focus Questions : Why do people conduct surveys? How are they used? The need to find out what people are thinking has never been greater than it is today. Surveys are used to find out what people's opinions are regarding a product. Information obtained from surveys is used to determine what products will sell, which age groups would be willing to buy the product, and other information to publicize the product. Surveys emphasize the importance of perceptions. This applies not only to the world of business; it is just as true in health, education, public services and most other fields. Knowing what people think gives you a powerful competitive edge. In business, if you know what your customers are thinking you can focus your products or services to meet their needs.

 Procedures:  

1. Give students an overview of what they will be doing in the unit. Break students up into groups of 3 or 4 students. Students should be divided into groups based on the following characteristics: leadership, artistic ability. You may want to start by asking students how they see themselves as an artist, a leader or unsure. Select one of each to form a group. The groups comprised of four students may have two students who are unsure or two students who feel they are artistic, but not two students who feel they are leaders. (This may cause conflicts when they start working together.)
2. Ask students to take 2 minutes to think about why people do surveys, why they are important and if there are any careers related to designing & conducting surveys.
3. Using the projector connected to a computer, show the class the 6 minute video on market research analysts from United Streaming. (Substitute another video from your library on this topic if necessary). Give a couple of minutes at the end for questions or comments.
4. Break students up into the selected groups and have them brainstorm ideas regarding a new product they will develop.
5. Take students to the following website http://kn.sbc.com/wired/fil/pages/listmarketinan.html. This is a hotlist on Marketing and contains links on how to create surveys and graphing.

 

Homework: Students should print out and hand out their surveys to classmates, family members, etc. Results from the survey should be available for the next class.

Tips: Get students motivated and have them thinking about market research analysis as a possible career choice for the future, especially if you are teaching this unit to high school seniors. When designing their surveys, students should think in general terms of their product area, such as clothing, perfume, jewelry, vehicles, etc. and include questions based on their prior knowledge of the competitors.

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