Rules and Guidelines
Using the SPSS dataset named “Final – MacDonalds” (.sav), conduct data analysis and interpret your results to address the questions shown in the following pages.
You are expected to write a research report which should (1) answer the research questions outlined in the following pages through the outcomes of your data analysis and (2) provide recommendations to the company (in this case, MacDonald’s).
The main body of the assignment should be 3,000 words maximum, not including metadata (i.e., cover page, title, table of contents, etc.), tables, and headings. Overall, the report should be a maximum of 20 pages, and shorter reports will be accepted.
Use a 1.5-point line spacing and Times New Roman as a font. The main text should be 12 points, while headings can be bigger (13 or 14 points). In addition, you can use styles to make your report look more professional.
Ensure you use the SPSS manuals provided during the course to carry out data analysis and interpret the results.
You should include the main SPSS output (i.e., the SPSS tables) in the main text of your report.
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Rubrics
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There are 5 questions you are required to address, each carrying a different number of points based on their difficulty, for a total of 30 points. You will be awarded a percentage of the points for each research question based on the following:
Your choice and justification of analysis method based on your variables and research question (20%);
Your hypotheses – when/if needed (20%; in case the hypotheses are not required for your method, then this percentage is going to be divided equally between points 3 and 4 below);
The correctness of the procedure to analyse and interpret the output (40%);
The correctness of your interpretation of the results (20%).
Another 10 points will be awarded for:
The quality, soundness, and viability of your marketing recommendations (5 points)
The quality of writing, reporting, and presentation of the document (5 points)
Assignment Brief:
You are a data analyst for MacDonald’s, and you have recently carried out some research to find out how the brand is doing in the fast-food market. You have collected data through a questionnaire (see Appendix 1 and Appendix 2 located at the end of this document for the coding booklet and the questionnaire text, respectively) covering consumers’ perceptions and attitudes towards the brand, demographics, psychographics and behavioural characteristics. You have targeted a convenience sample of 194 students at the as it was deemed representative of the Australian market.
Your supervisor has asked you to put together a 3,000-word report where you address the following research questions:
Research Question 1 (3 points)
Provide an overview of your sample’s socio-demographic variables (Q3 to Q10) through descriptive statistics/summary measures (central tendency and dispersion) and
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their frequency distributions. Moreover, calculate the Net Promoter Score (NPS) for both MacDonald’s and Hungry Jack’s and provide an interpretation of it (Q14).
Note: you can use graphs and charts to answer the first part of this question.
Research Question 2 (10 points)
Conduct a hierarchical cluster analysis using the brand attachment scale, the perception of sustainability scale, and the healthy eating tendency scale (refer to Appendix 1 for conceptualisation and operationalisation). After providing an interpretation of the agglomeration coefficients and dendogram, explain how many segments you have identified and describe their differences using the following descriptor variables:
Brand attachment
Perception of sustainability
Healthy Eating
Frequency of Fast-food Consumption
Monthly Fast-food Expenditures
Enrolment type
Veganism
Research Question 3 (6 points)
Using all the variables from Q12_1_A to Q12_5_E, create a positioning map and explain how each brand in the Australian fast-food market is perceived.
Research Question 4 (8 points)
Through a regression model, answer the following research question: how do students’ age (Q3), enrolment type (Q6), healthy-eating tendencies, self-control, brand attachment towards MacDonald’s, and perception of MacDonald’s sustainability predict the likelihood of purchasing MacDonald’s in the next month (Q16)?
Note: in your answer, ensure (1) you explain what type of regression you used and why;
whether multicollinearity is likely for the model and, if it is, explain what you did to address the issue; and (3) you provide an overview of the main indicators of goodness-of-fit and what they mean for your model.
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Research Question 5 (3 points)
As part of your data collection, you also carried out an A/B test where you showed two different advertisements of a new product concept with two prices (control vs odd-even price) to two separate (independent) groups of consumers (Con1). Here are the two advertisements:
Treatment A: Odd-even Pricing
Treatment B: Control
New Big Mac Pro for $7.99
New Big Mac Pro for $8
Is there a significant difference between the respondents in each treatment in terms of perceived credibility of the ad (Q28), likelihood to try the new product (Q29), and how interesting they found this new product (Q30)?
Assignment Structure:
Because this is a report, structure it in the following way:
Executive summary (1 page) – an overview of the study conducted, your main findings, and the recommendations based on your findings in a standalone page.
Analyses for research questions 1-5 (2-3 pages for each approximately) – for each question, please explain how you addressed it, including:
The type of variables (scales) included in your analysis;
Justification for the analysis method utilised (i.e., explain why you used a specific analysis method based on the operationalisation of your variables);
State your null and alternative hypotheses when/if needed for the type of analysis you are doing;
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Tables or graphs showing the outcome (if applicable);
Interpretation of the findings
Note: in order to limit the plagiarism score of your assignment, please do not copy and paste the wording of each question as written in the assignment brief in your report. Instead, you can provide several section headings “Research Question 1: Description of Sample”, or “Section 1: Sample Characteristics”.
Recommendations and Conclusions (2-4 pages) – based on your results for Research Questions 1-5, provides some recommendations to MacDonald’s marketing department to improve on their current tactics and strategies. Note: ensure these recommendations are linked to your actual findings and are marketing-relevant!
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