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1. Marketing Research 336
Case Study #1
By Elizabeth Kulin
Management Problem
As discussed by Professor Jason Jacobson in Marketing Research 336 at Golden
Gate University, the initial step in the process of marketing research is to clarify the
business/management problem. In this case it is apparent that the business objective is to
increase the volume of students who rent Harvard houses, verse private homes, by 40%
more among graduate school students. The management problem is how to accomplish
this goal. In greater detail, The Harvard Real Estate Services (HRES) team wants to
know how their housing development (of new student housing propriety that they are
planning the design of) should be designed to most likely appeal to Harvard students, and
most likely reach their goal of obtaining their residency.
Marketing Research Objective
The marketing research objective is a narrowed down scope of the management problem.
It is more specific, stems from the management problem, and clarifies the proper next
steps of the research process. In this case, the marketing research objectives are to
determine which characteristics are most critical in obtaining students to choose
residency from Harvard verse private housing. The marketing research topics need to be
investigated in greater, more granular detail, to determine how to design the housing,
which attributes students care about most, and if designing the housing in such specific
ways would better guarantee that students would choose to live in the Harvard student
housing over private housing. From the 2001 survey we learned that cost, space, and
location were the 3 most important attributes to students. Therefore, the marketing
research topics in the 2005 survey must explore:
1. Are costs, space and location still the most important to current students when
choosing between student verse private housing.
• The weight of importance between each variable.
2. Are cost, space, and location desired attributes to prospective students.
• Which variable is the most desired.
3. Do students (current and prospective) choose a school verse another based on
these variables.
• Are cost, space, and location of housing actual variables that student’s
research and contemplate when deciding between schools.
Research Design
Since the marketing research objectives and topics of this survey are attempting to
learn market characteristics (interest, desires, perceptions, behaviors) of the target
audience (students) the research design is descriptive. Also, since the survey will be give
and information collected only once (the same exact survey will most likely not be given
to the same audience of participants again), it is cross-sectional design. Furthermore, as
in 2001, to determine if interests, desires, perceptions an behaviors are true for the entire
audience of Harvard prospective and current students or not, a multiple cross-sectional

2. design that involves sampling each of the 10 different Harvard schools is necessary. The
HRES team has many options as to which survey method to use to carry out the research.
They can choose between telephone interviewing, personal interviewing, mail
interviewing, or electronic interviewing.
The first three types of survey methods are more expensive and time consuming.
This factor, and the fact that the HRES is accustom to this method since the 2001 survey
was conducted via electronic interviewing, electronic interviewing method is the most
appropriate for the 2005 survey. Also, this method is able to reach the majority of the
target audience since it only requires participants to have a computer (Harvard students
are likely to have access to computers), the research team could send the link to the
internet survey via email to participants, the participants will be able to do the survey at
their convenience with save a continue features, and the results are easily syndicated with
excel.
Secondary Data Sources
To gather an initial general understanding of the management problem, marketing
research objective and topics on a large scope, as well as insight into which research
method and questions might be best for the HRES team to focus on, the team should
perform secondary research. Secondary data sources hold information that has already
collected, and there might be information related to this specific case that could be
helpful to the team while they are trying to identify the exact problem, formulate a
potential hypotheses about the situation, develop an approach to solving their problem,
and understanding the audience that will be their study participants. For little cost, a
short amount of time and effort, the team could gather such secondary research as:
• Past research performed on student housing, internal and external data
sources.
• External research performed on competing schools housing.
• External articles that have focused on student opinions of student housing, and
specifically Harvard students.
For example:
• RIKER H, DECOSTER D. The Educational Role in College Student Housing.
Journal of College & University Student Housing [serial online]. October
2008;35(2):80-85. Available from: Academic Search Elite, Ipswich, MA.
Accessed February 5, 2010.
• Bekurs G. Outsourcing Student Housing in American Community Colleges:
Problems and Prospects. Community College Journal of Research & Practice
[serial online]. August 2007;31(8):621-636. Available from: Academic Search
Elite, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 5, 2010.
• ST. ONGE S, ELLETT T, NESTOR E. Factors Affecting Recruitment and
Retention of Entry-Level Housing and Residential Life Staff: Perceptions of
Chief Housing Officers. Journal of College & University Student Housing
[serial online]. October 2008;35(2):10-23. Available from: Academic Search
Elite, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 5, 2010.
• Fleming S. The ABCs of Student Housing. National Real Estate
Investor [serial online]. October 2009;51(9):38-41. Available from:

3. Business Source Complete, Ipswich, MA. Accessed February 5, 2010.
• The Boston Globe
• Allston Brighton Community Blog, Harvard University Gazette and
Allston-Brighton Tab
• Harvard Crimson
• Harvard University Gazette
Scale Questions
The questions within the survey should be relevant, and stem from, the marketing
research objective topics. The survey should not include questions about attributes that
do not relate or are easily assumed. Additionally, the questions should start general, in
effort to get all participants in the same mindset as each other, and then move to more
specific and very specific questions that concretely answer the marketing research
problem. They should be simple, clear, easy and attractive for participants of the online
survey to understand and answer.
To answer the marketing research problem, answers to the questions must be
measurable and scalable. To achieve this, the questions must be drafted in a way that
allows the answers to be such. There are categories of questions that result in
measurable and scalable results. They are: Nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio.
The following is an example of the questions flow, and two scale questions within each
of the four scale types:
General - NOMINAL QUESTIONS
*Current students:
• What Harvard school do you attend, check 1 out of 10? (RATIONAL: groups
the participants)
• Do you live in Harvard housing, YES or NO? (RATIONAL: sets mind on
topic of survey)
• Are you happy with your residency, YES or NO? (RATIONAL: sets stage for
topics)
*Prospective students:
• What Harvard program are you planning to attend, check 1 out of 10?
(RATIONAL: groups the participants)
• Are you considering living in Harvard housing, YES or NO? (RATIONAL:
sets mind on topic of survey)
• Have you started to, or plan to, research the rental prices of Harvard housing
units, YES or NO? (RATIONAL: sets stage for topics)
• Have you started to, or plan to, research the rental sizes of Harvard housing
units, YES or NO? (RATIONAL: sets stage for topics)
• Have you started to, or plan to, research the rental locations of Harvard
housing units, YES or NO? (RATIONAL: sets stage for topics)
More Specific – ORDINAL QUESTIONS
*Current students
• Please rank from 1-3 which housing characteristic is most important to you

4. (RATIONAL: addresses topic #1)
 Rent price _______
 Size of the living space__________
 Location of your living quarters ____________
*Prospective students
• Please rank from 1- 3 which housing characteristic you are most interested in
learning about (RATIONAL: addresses topic #2)
 Rent price _______
 Size of the living space__________
 Location of your living quarters ____________
Very Specific – INTERVAL & RATIO
*Current students
• Please indicate how much rental price is important to you while conducting
your academic program (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)
 Completely not important
 Sort of important
 Important
 Extremely important
• Please indicate how much size of living space is important to you while
conducting your academic program (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)
 Completely not important
 Sort of important
 Important
 Extremely important
• Please indicate how much location of living quarters is important to you while
conducting your academic program (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)
 Completely not important
 Sort of important
 Important
 Extremely important
• How much longer (days, months, years) do you plan to continue
residency with Harvard housing? (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)
**Prospective students
• On a scale of 1-7 please rate how much student housing is a part of your
decision in which school to attend (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)
• How many schools are you applying to that do not offer the housing that you
desire? (RATIONAL: addresses topic #3)