Help ASAP

Help ASAP

This is a CLC assignment.
This is the first in a series of team assignments designed to help students compose their final market research report for Nick Thomas and Advanced Automobile Concepts. As part of the company’s market research team, your first task is to identify the most appropriate research design for Advanced Automobile Concept’s market research problem. This assignment asks students to define the problems facing Advanced Automobile Concepts, write research objectives to solve those problems, and determine what role qualitative research could play in the project (Steps 2, 3, and 4 in the marketing research process in Figure 3.1 in chapter 3 of the textbook). Review the details of Case 3.2 and Case 4.2 at the end of chapters 3 and 4 and then complete the following two activities:
THIS IS THE BEGINNING 3 QUESTIONS NEEDING TO BE ANSWERED. CASE 4.2 QUESTIONS ARE BEING ANSWERED BY SOMEONE ELSE.

Review Case 3.2 at the end of Chapter 3 and answer the following questions:
1. Describe the “source” of the problem(s) facing Nick Thomas?
2. Describe the major areas of opportunity identified in the Douglass report. Define, as specifically as possible, the problem underlying each of those opportunities. What major research questions need to be answered in order to sufficiently address those problems/opportunities?
3. Write the research objectives intended to address each one of the problems addressed in part 2. These will be the primary objectives that guide the writing of the market research report for Advanced Automobile Concepts. Students may revise their objectives as they work further into the cases and collect more information. There is additional information on writing research objectives on page 58-71 in the textbook. Students can also utilize the Research Objective Mapping Tool for assistance related to writing clear objectives.

Case 3.2 Your Integrated Case- Advanced Automobile Concepts

Case Recall

·

RecallinCase1.2thatNickThomasisthenewCEOofAdvancedAutomobileConcepts(AAC)

· New division of a large automobile manufacturer, ZEN Motors. ZEN is a multinational manufacturer headquartered in the United States.

· ZEN’s divisions have been slowly losing market share too their competitors

· AAC was created to revive the aging ZEN automobile brands by either reengineering existing models or developing totally new models that are more competitive in today’s new car market.

Thomas Concerns

· Thomas is concerned about the strategic direction AAC should take.

· He knows the trend has been toward smaller, fuel-efficient automobiles; but on the other hand, he knows that this maybe a passing trend, similar to what occurred in the 1970s when fuel costs soared.

· As soon as OPEC countries lowered their pricing of oil it led to the SUV craze of the 1990s through about 2006.

· Thomas is the market’s attitudes toward global warming. (scientific community is in reasonable agreement about global warming, there is enough controversy in the information environment to cause consumers to wonder if concern for global warming is real)

·

Thomas Does Not Know

· Thomas doesn’t know how to deal with global warming in terms of the direction he should take with his auto-mobiles.

Thomas Does Know

· Some believe it is a hoax. These consumers enjoy citing record-low temperatures.

· Other consumers believe there may be global warming, but it is a natural phenomenon of the earth’s temperature cycles. These consumers do not believe mankind contributes to global warming.

Questions Based off Concerns

· Thomas wonders if consumers really believe oil prices will remain high.

· If consumers believe this, they will probably prefer smaller, fuel-efficient vehicles.

· If they do not, he believes demand for these smaller vehicles will be a passing fad.

Thomas Hiring Steps to Help

· Thomas was hired as CEO, he hired Marilyn Douglass, former director of marketing research at Nord Motors, who has many years of experience working in the automotive industry.

· Nord Motors is a major competitor of ZEN.

Thomas’s Reason of Hiring

· Thomas wanted Douglass on his team because he felt he needed someone to interpret consumers’ future automotive needs.

First Task for Douglass

· He asked Douglass to prepare are port summarizing what she felt were the major automobile alternatives for ZEN to consider.

· Her report, referred to in the company as the “Douglass Report,” outlined the following major alternatives.

Douglass Report Highlights

· Suggests that ZEN’s best opportunity will reside with hybrids that use both electric power and engine power, using either gasoline, diesel, biodiesel, or even CNG.

· The key to the future was thought to be hybrid cars with an electric motor charged by and alternating with an internal combustion engine.

· Her best choice for the engine fuel for now is biodiesel simply because diesel engines get higher miles per gallon (mpg) than gasoline and there is not likely to be a major change in the infrastructure needed to make biodiesel widely available.

· The Douglass Report recommends that this decision be confirmed by others at ZEN.

· Report stated that ZEN’s competitiveness will depend on selecting the car designs (models) that best meet market demand. So, the smallest vehicle will have “very high” mpg and the largest proposed model will have “good” mpg.

1. Very small, one-seat vehicle designed to get near maximum mpg

2. Small, two-seat vehicle designed to get high mpg

3. Larger, economy/compact size, four-seat vehicle designed to get good mpg

4. Large, standard size, five- to six-seat vehicle with conventional trunk space designed to get reasonably good mpg

How many of these models will ZEN want to create, manufacture, and market? The Douglass Report explains that there may very well be enough demand to justify several ZEN models. It will be critical to determine which models have the greatest demand. Secondly, Douglass warned that just because we have an energy and environmental crisis, the car buying public will not be satisfied with one solution. Similar to the market today, there are varied segments and each may prefer a unique model to best satisfy their demands and to determine market segments. Finally, the Douglass Report discusses the need to market vehicles in the futureas efficiently as possible. Two factors are given for the additional efficiency requirements in the future. First, there will be increased competition. Start up firms will been courage by new governmental policies to produce new, energy saving vehicles. Second, profit margins will be lower on smaller vehicles of the future. As noted earlier, smaller cars traditionally have been priced competitively; they do not have the “higher” price points of some of the larger, luxury cars. Marketing efforts will need to clearly “reach” the market segments with promotional materials without wasting promotional dollars on market segments that are not interested in the vehicle being promoted. Media can be purchased that targets markets based upon knowledge of standard demographic data, such as gender, marital status, number of persons in a house hold, age, level of education, job category, income, dwelling type, number of vehicles owned/leased, and type of vehicle owned (economy, standard, luxury, SUV, pick up truck, van). Also, dealer locations can be selected based on other factors, such as size of the city. Thomas read the Douglass Report carefully. He believed it was a good point to start the decision making process, but he needed additional information.

Case 4.2