CIM MIR Certificate Assignment Dec 2010

Marketing Information and Research Microsoft’s Xbox 360

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LSBF-MIR- Dec10-12915926

Research Proposal

To: Research Manager

From: Research executive

For: Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Department

Subject: website effectiveness

Date: Nov, 2010

Contact: Kyle Swanson (Research Director)

[email protected]

Total Word count: 7500


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Contents Background ............................................................................................................................................. 4

Rationale ............................................................................................................................................. 5

Objectives ............................................................................................................................................... 5

Research Approach and methodology .................................................................................................... 6

Secondary Research ................................................................................................................................ 7

Purpose ........................................................................................................................................... 7

Procedure ........................................................................................................................................ 7

Evaluation of Secondary data ......................................................................................................... 7

Primary Research .................................................................................................................................... 8

Qualitative Research ........................................................................................................................... 8

Purpose ........................................................................................................................................... 8

Sampling .......................................................................................................................................... 8

Recruitment .................................................................................................................................... 9

Location ........................................................................................................................................... 9

Moderator ....................................................................................................................................... 9

Discussion guide ............................................................................................................................ 10

Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 10

Quantitative research ....................................................................................................................... 10

Purpose ......................................................................................................................................... 10

Sampling ........................................................................................................................................ 10

Recruitment .................................................................................................................................. 11

Procedure ...................................................................................................................................... 11

Analysis ......................................................................................................................................... 12

Reporting and presentation procedures............................................................................................... 12

Timing.................................................................................................................................................... 12

Fees ....................................................................................................................................................... 13

Personal CVs .......................................................................................................................................... 13

Related experience and references ...................................................................................................... 13

Questionnaire ....................................................................................................................................... 14

Introduction ...................................................................................................................................... 14

Start ................................................................................................................................................... 14

Questionnaire field guidance ................................................................................................................ 21

References ............................................................................................................................................ 24


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Introduction .......................................................................................................................................... 25

Findings ................................................................................................................................................. 25

Online questionnaire ........................................................................................................................ 25

Reasons for increase use of online questionnaires ...................................................................... 25

Sampling issues involved in using website to obtain respondent for survey ................................... 26

Comparison of response rates of an online with an offline questionnaires ..................................... 26

Approaches to address issues relating online questionnaires: ........................................................ 27

Advantages and disadvantages of adopting online questionnaires ................................................. 27

Advantages .................................................................................................................................... 27

Disadvantages ............................................................................................................................... 28

Conclusions ....................................................................................................................................... 29

Bibliography .......................................................................................................................................... 30

Appendix ............................................................................................................................................... 31


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Task One

To: Research Manager

From: Research Executive

Subject: Xbox website effectiveness

Date: 26-11-10

Background In 2000 Bill Gates decided to enter into game console business, making Microsoft a diverse

business rather than just focusing on software development. This step was taken to expand

Microsoft market to new limits. The Xbox 360 is a leading gaming console by Microsoft, the

giant software development company. With a massive processor Triple Core IBM PowerPC

with a stunning speed of 3.2 GHz and a graphic card of 512MB powered by ATI technology

made Xbox 360 the most powerful gaming console in the market. Launched in 2005 Xbox

360 still comes with same specification but it was made so powerful and keeping the

technological advances in mind, it is still the most wanted console in the world by game

lovers. So customers don’t have to spend their money again and again to buy an updated

version of console like Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo. Soon after its launch Xbox 360 left

behind its competitors and captured most of USA gaming market. Xbox 360 had three

variations The Core, The Premium and The Elite.

The Xbox 360 customer base is quite large. Children of age 8 to people of age 40+ like this

console. With Kinect now Xbox is trying to capture mums and old people as well. So actually

Xbox 360 captures game lovers of all ages.

The Xbox 360 comes with Xbox Live where gamers can play online and compete with

millions of its users online after buying a Gold membership from Xbox. Xbox 360 also comes

with a motion sensor device called Kinect to play games using your body as a controller.

Kinect is going to change the face of console gaming as it is the most intelligent gaming

device ever invented. Consumer can use Kinect for number of purpose for example

controlling Xbox 360’s general function using their voice, playing games without using any

game controller and using Kinect to help them in exercising and keeping their bodies in

shape. Xbox 360 also provides online console registration which helps customers to seek

help when there is any problem with their console. Xbox 360 also provides customers with

its own games which are exclusively available to Xbox 360 like Halo, Fable, Left 4 Dead etc.

These must play games are only available to Xbox 360 and a must have product.


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Xbox 360 owns 20% market shares of gaming console market. Xbox 360 is competing with

big names of gaming industry which are in the business from a quite long period. Xbox 360’s

competitor Nintendo owns 49% of market share and Sony’s PlayStation owns 31% of market

share hence making Xbox 360 the 3rd

and least selling console in the market. Though after

launching Kinect for Xbox 360 Microsoft is expecting to increase its market share for Xbox as

compare to its competitors.

Rationale

This research is going to be conducted to check the effectiveness of Xbox 360’s website. Today we

are living in a global village, so for every successful organization, its website is like a face. Customers

usually go to web site of organization and shop rather than going into store. So for Xbox 360, its

website is a major source to reach its target market. At the moment Xbox 360 has a well-developed

website but it still lacks some features like online selling and live customer support. Absence of such

critical features make Xbox 360 website less user friendly. So company wants to develop a new,

more user friendly and interactive website. Before moving on to new website development and

funds allocation there are some objectives to meet and those are

Objectives • To examine the attitude of a range of current users towards the existing website

What customers think of using Xbox 360 website, what they like and dislike about the existing

website and what extra features they want to see in the website. How the videos and sound on the

website attract them towards different options and advertisements. What they think in term of

usability of the website and its contents.

• To determine how current users navigate through the existing website

The way user browse on the website and how the approach the Xbox 360 existing web site and its

features e.g. through search engines, online advertisement, links or directly to website. What

navigation path they follow while using website. Do users click on advertisements and web

promotions available on the website, and if pop-up ads, promotions or survey appear on website,

how they react to it.

• To compare perception of the organisation’s website relative to the website of its

competitors

How customers grade and think about the Xbox 360 in terms of being user friendly and interactive to

those of competitors like Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo’s Wii. What they think about the speed of

loading of Xbox website as compare to other websites.

• To identify the potential for enhanced features on the website

To examine any extra feature wanted by customer. How an extra feature which will make website

more interactive and make it easy to use website by the users. How these features will fulfil the


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needed of current and potential users? How these feature will increase customer retention on the

website.

• To assist in the selection of the overall design for the new website

To help web developers in development of new website by providing them with accurate and

needed customer information to make website more customer oriented. How new web

developments will help to enhance website design and making it more interactive.

Research Approach and methodology Objective Research Approach Justification

1. Examining attitude

of current website

users

Primary research

Qualitative

Focus Groups

It’s easy to measure

attitudes through

interacting with users and

listening to their thoughts

2. Determining how

existing users

browse through

website

Secondary research

Internal

As website is administer by

IT department and server

keeps all the data about

people using website,

secondary data from web

server will help to

determine how users

navigate through website.

3. How user perceive

Xbox website as

compare to its

competitors

Primary research

Qualitative

Focus group will also help

to measure the

perceptions. As

perceptions are thoughts

of people, respondents of

focus group will help to

fulfil objective 3.

4. Identification of

potential for extra

features on website

Primary research

Quantitative

Quantitative research like

questionnaire will be very

helpful to identify what

extensions customer wants

on the website as there

will be close and open end

questions focusing on the

design of the website.

5. Assisting in selection

of overall new

website

Secondary research

There is a lot of published

data about new features

available for website

designing. Many computer

magazine hold this data. It

will be cheap and easy to

collect.


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Secondary Research

According to The MRS (2005) defined secondary research as ‘The collation of existing

research results and data from published secondary resources for a specific, often unrelated

project’. Examples of secondary data resources which we can use for our proposal are

online shopping sales figures, online customer complaints, specialist companies,

professional institutions etc.

Purpose

We will carry out secondary research to filter the objectives and to provide lines of inquest

for the next stage. Particularly, an internal secondary research will be conducted to collect

information on how users navigate through Xbox website. An external secondary research

will be also conducted to aid in selection of new design for the website. During this phase,

we also produce a list of product and uncover any relevant information on competitors’

products that may be valuable in the next stages of the research.

Procedure

We will start secondary research internally with Xbox; we will ask you to allow us to consult

people who may have access to internal databases and networks, so that we can collect

electronic data about the usage of website from your web server. As it will be very useful for

objective 2, we suggest that you should allow us to access your database and staff working

on it. It will save a lot of time and cost. We are expecting to hold 3 meeting with them for

this purpose. The IT team may be part of this. We would expect access to internal report on

website usage, information on server being used, correspondence with website users,

regional buying behaviours and complaints. These will help to indicate website usage, local

marketplace and will help in segmentation by indicating strengths and weaknesses.

An external secondary research will be also carried out to acquire and evaluate existing

market assessment by companies such as Keynote and Mintel. We will also contact related

trade associations. We will study blogs and published research for any indication of

consoles’ website usage. We will also create a portfolio of websites features and online

promotions used by competitors. This will help us to assist in new website development and

will minimise the risk of missing any important feature on our website.

Evaluation of Secondary data

Secondary data will be evaluated on the bases of following questions

• Who is the publisher?

• Why were the data collected?

• When were the data collected?

• Is it relevant?

• How data was collected?

• Are the data reliable?


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• Are the data comparable?

This evaluation of secondary data will be done to know how much collected data is credible

and useful for our research. This will also help us to remove any irrelevant data from

secondary research making it more reliable to be used to achieve research objectives.

Primary Research

‘Experiments, investigations, or tests carried out to acquire primary data’

(businessdictionary, 2010). To achieve Objective 1,2,3,4 we will conduct primary research

because to achieve these objectives we need fresh and particular data from customers. For

example to examine the attitude of customers toward current website is only possible by

conducting a focus group research of 4 groups. While for object 3, we can conduct

interviews from different people to know how they perceive about Xbox n competitors’

websites.

Qualitative Research Research that is undertaken using an unstructured research approach with a small number

of carefully selected individuals to produced non quantifiable insight into behaviour

motivation and attitude (Alan Wilson, 2006).

Purpose

Because of the exploratory nature of some of objectives, we will conduct a qualitative

research to provide you with the detailed information required. Focus groups technique will

be used to examine the attitude of current users toward the website and there perceptions

of your company’s website to that of your competitors’ websites.

The qualitative research will explore the following:

• How users rank the website in term of its interface

• What users think about the available features on the website

• How users think about using website in term of its being user friendly

• How users rank your website relative to your competitors’ websites

• How satisfied users are with features available on your website as compare to

competitors’

• What features users most like on competitors’ websites

Sampling

According to Crouch and Housden (2003) a sample is a small number taken from large group

for testing and analysis, on the assumption that the sample is representative of the

population as a whole.


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We will select our sample by simple random sampling using Human observation

technique. We recommend 4 groups each with 8 correspondents and with following profiles

as our sample frames:

Group 1 Group 2 Group 3 Group 4

Arcade

Age 11-35

Female

Amateur

Elite

Age 11-35

Male

Amateur

Kinect

Age 11-35

Female

Professional

Halo

Age 11-35

Male

Professional

These will include

• Amateur and professional users

• Age ranging from 11-35 years

• Mix of male and female

Recruitment

We will recruit our respondents through observation in different game shops like

GameStation, Game or Cex by placing Xbox 360 game consoles in the stores and will invite

people to play followed by a short screening interview. This will help us to recruit the

existing users of Xbox 360. Each respondent will be paid 30 pounds for time and service to

us. We will choose respondents on the bases of three variables i.e. age, sex and there

gaming experience. We will over hire respondents to cope with any issues arising due to

absence of respondents at the day of original research. We will hire 12 respondents for each

group. At the day of focus group research we will select respondent from our sample on

first come first served bases. Not selected respondents will be paid and send back with

thanking them.

Location

We will conduct our focus groups research at Armadillo Studios, STRC House, 87A Wembley

Hill Road, London. This will be conduct at 10 am on 17th

November 2010. We have chosen

this place because it is easily accessible from all parts of the city on public as well as private

transport and it also provides best equipment to conduct focus group research. The

environment of facility is quite and well-furnished to provide comfort to our respondents.

Moderator

We have many MRS certified and experiences moderator to run our focus groups on our

hand. Our moderators always rehearse and run through the guide before the focus group.

They will arrive at least an hour before the start to check the equipment and facility. They

always come prepare with the supplies need to run focus groups. The all follow the code of


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conduct for moderators published by MRS during this research. They are good at probing

and have very positive body language.

Discussion guide

Discussion guide will start with an introduction of the research its objectives and personal

introduction of the moderator and the agenda for the focus group. This phase will take

about 10 minutes. After introduction phase the dissuasive part of the discussion guide will

start. In this phase respondents will be put through the actual task and moderator will be

there to run the focus group. In this section all the data will be collect by using DVDS, voice

recorders and cameras. This phase will run for 90 minutes. The last phase will be the

summarising and closing of the discussion group. It will take about 10-15 minutes. At the

end moderator will administer all the equipment and data for analysis. We will use Role

playing projective technique during our focus group as our product is about roles and

characters.

Analysis

The qualitative data will be analysed by the moderator. First of all data, data will be

organised, which will be contained on DVDs. And to make analysis more effective a written

transcript of these DVDs will be made. Collected data will be organised in tabular form using

Excel spreadsheet. We will use content analysis software ‘Nvivo’ to analyse our qualitative

data because it will help us to reduce any human error in our result and it will also help us to

reduce time as all the recorded data will be directly entered into software. Analysis will give

us a broad theme discussed explore during the research. We will also look on which points

our respondents agreed and disagreed. At the end our moderator will present a report with

analysed output.

Quantitative research ‘Research which seeks to make measurements as distinct from qualitative research’ (MRS,

2010).

Purpose

We suggest carrying out online questionnaire. This is chosen because of being cost-effective

and convenient way of contacting correspondents. We haven’t proposed telephone

interviews or postal study because we feel that online questionnaire gives us the

opportunity to contact people accurately and to avoid any inconvenience caused to

respondents by calling them on times when they are busy or sleeping.

Sampling

We have decided a sample size of 300 internet users while using different access points. This

will give a spread of responses and the opportunity to identify interesting differences. It will

be the person who had internet access either at home or in mobile. The sample will be

made after conducting


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Internet access point Sample size

Home 100

Mobile 100

Other (internet cafes,

libraries etc)

100

Total 300

Recruitment

To recruit sample frame for quantitative research screening interviews will be conducted in

the games selling shops. During the screen interview, we will collect email ids of people who

are willing to participate in our research. We will hire 100% more respondent i.e. 600 than

the required sample i.e. 300 to avoid shortage of respondents at the time of research

because of any issues. Our sample size will be age between 11 years to 35 years because

most of the gamers come from these age groups. Upon recruitment each respondent will be

provided with a short training to help them to understand basic terms and way to complete

questionnaire.

Procedure

The questionnaire will be developed by our researchers and sent to Xbox for approval. We

will be send questionnaire to our respondents through email embedded link which will

directly take them to the questionnaire. Upon completion of questionnaire, it will be saved

automatically in a central database at our organization. The questionnaire will investigate

the following

• How users rank Xbox website as compare to its competition?

• How often they use internet?

• How often they visit game consoles’ websites?

• Which feature on website they like most?

• What changes they want in current website?

Where possible, questions will be pre-coded, but for maximizing response rate, we have

supposed 22 questions and a maximum duration of 15 minutes. After questionnaire


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development a pilot phase will be conduct on a size of 15 respondents to check the

effectiveness of the questionnaire. After piloting, pilot debriefing will be done.

Analysis

The analysis will start with editing and coding of collected data to organize it. It will be

carried out by computerized tabulation, in the form of frequency distributions. Subsequent

requirements for statistical analysis will be discussed. We will use hypothesis testing

technique to analyse organised data. Once we will be done with evaluating initial data, we

will measure relationships with national figure from latest census of web usage by

multivariate analysis technique.

Reporting and presentation procedures

After the qualitative segment of the research, a provisional report will be submitted. This

will be followed by a brief meeting with Xbox to discuss the next phase of the research. A

summarize PowerPoint presentation will be created and once accepted; it will be followed

by formal presentation of all findings and conclusions. Three copies of report summary

including the findings of all phases of the research will be then submitted. Three sets of

tabulation will also be submitted. Transcripts of the interviews can be made available at

extra cost, if requested.

Timing The table shown below designates timeframe for the research. This timeframe will help to

meet deadlines set out in the brief. During project weekly progress reports will be sent to

the client through email. So that if clients want any modification, we will be able to work on

it at weekends. Some overlapping periods are carefully studied to ensure to respect the

deadlines client has given to us. As timing is tight, so to match deadlines, we request you to

sign-off within next three weeks. If there are any changes in dates on your side, our

timetable will be changed according to new requirements.

Week

Activity

1-3 Secondary research

3-6 Qualitative fieldwork

7 Qualitative and secondary research report

presentation

8-9 Questionnaire preparation


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10 Pilot (n=20)

11 Pilot debriefing

12-14 Quantitative stage (n=200)

15-16 Data Analysis

17 Presentation

19 Final report submission

Fees The fees below are subject to standard terms and conditions. These fees are based on

assumptions contained in the proposal and we reserve the right to make any changes where

any assumption proves to be incorrect.

Stage Description Fee

Desk research Including Research from

Google analytics and

Mintel

£4000

Qualitative research 4 Focus group of size 8

each

£12000

Quantitative research 300 online questionnaires £10,000

Data analysis and

presentation

Data analysis and meeting

for presentation

£5000

Total fee £31,000

Personal CVs Will be made available on request

Related experience and references Will be provided on request


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Task Two (A)

Questionnaire

To: Marketing Manager

From: Research Executive

Subject: Questionnaire Design

Date: Nov 2010

Introduction We are a leading research agency and we are conducting this questionnaire on behalf of very well

known game console producing company. This questionnaire focuses on the website of the

organization. This questionnaire will take no more than 15 minutes to complete. For every

respondent, there will be an incentive and an entry in a lucky draw to win a gaming console

including all accessories and five latest games. As respondent will complete the questionnaire, the

completed questionnaire will be saved automatically and respondents don’t have to do anything to

save it. We are legally bound to protect data provided by our respondents and we follow MRS code

of conduct (revised 2005) and data protection and Data Protection Act (1998). We will keep your

personal data in our secure database. Your data will not be use for any other purpose. If we

intended to use your data in future we will first contact you and will ask for your permission to use

the data related to you.

Start

Q1 Do you play video games?

Yes……………………………………………………………………………………..

No………………………………………………………………………………………

(If No, terminate. Thank you for taking part in our research.)


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Q2 What Console do you own?

Xbox 360……. PlayStation 3…… Nintendo Wii…..

(If not Xbox 360, terminate. Thank you for taking part in our research.)

Q3 How did you buy that Console?

Online (other websites)……………………………………………….…….

Shop…………………………………………………………………………………..

Console’s own website………………………………………………………

Other ………………………………………………………………………………….

Specify

Q4 Do you have internet access?

Yes…………………………………………………………………………………….

No……………………………………………………………………………………..

(If No, terminate. Thank you for taking part in our research.)

Q5 Where you access internet mostly?

Home…………………………………………………………………………………….

Mobile………………………………………………………………………………..

Internet cafe………………………………………………………………………

Library…………………………………………………………………………………

Other ………………………………………………………………………………….

Specify


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Q6 What do you think of using website of your favourite console?

Easy to use………………………………………………………………………..

Difficult to use……………………………………………………………………

Don’t know………………………………………………………………………..

Q7 How you access Xbox website?

www.Xbox.com.............................................................................

Search engine……………………………………………………………………………..

Online Advertisement………………………………………………………………..

Other websites links……………………………………………………………………

Other………………………………………………………………………………………….

*Please Specify

Q8 While navigating Xbox 360 website what feature you visit most?

Xbox 360 + Accessories………………………………………………………

Xbox Live…………………………………………………………………………….

Games + Market Place…………………………………………………………

Forum………………………………………………………………………………….

My Xbox……………………………………………………………………………….

KINECT…………………………………………………………………………………

Don’t know…………………………………………………………………………….


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Q9 How do you usually navigate the Xbox 360 website?

Specific Path navigation…………………………………………………………..

Drop-down navigation……………………………………………………………..

Features navigation………………………………………………………………….

Homepage navigation………………………………………………………………

Don’t know………………………………………………………………………………

Q10 How would you overall rate Xbox 360 current website?

Very Good…. Good…. Acceptable…. Poor…. Very Poor….

Q11 On a scale of 1-5, how would you rate the following aspects of Xbox 360 website,

where 1 is very poor and 5 is very good

1 2 3 4 5

User Friendly

Interactivity

Rich in features

Accessibility

Functionality

Q12 Does Xbox 360 website fulfils your expectations in terms of its features?

Yes………………………………………………………………………………………………

No……………………………………………………………………………………………….

Don’t know………………………………………………………………………………….


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Q 13 Can you navigate the Xbox 360 website easily?

Yes………………………………………………………………………………………………..

No…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Don’t Know……………………………………………………………………………………

Q14 How do you rank the Xbox 360 website as compared to its competitor on a scale of 1-3,

where 1 is very good and 3 is poor?

www.xbox.com.............................................................................

www.playstaion.com....................................................................

www.nintendo.com......................................................................

Q15 Does Xbox 360 website load flash videos quickly as compared to its competitors’

websites?

Yes………………………………………………………………………………………………..

No…………………………………………………………………………………………………

Don’t know…………………………………………………………………………………...

Q16 What feature are missing from the Xbox website?

Online console buying…………………………………………………………………..

Online Xbox Live membership buying……………………………………………

Online Xbox Points buying……………………………………………………………

Online Live support………………………………………………………………………

Other……………………………………………………………………………………………

Please specify

None………………………………………………………………………………………………


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Q 17 Does our Download link work well?

Yes……………………………………………………………………………………..

No……………………………………………………………………………………..

Never tried…………………………………………………………………………

Don’t know…………………………………………………………………………

Q18 What do you think about recently add feature of Kinect on website?

Well developed……………………………………………………………………………..

Need to change……………………………………………………………………………..

Don’t know…………………………………………………………………………………….

(if option 2, go to next question, otherwise go to Q20)

Q19 What changes you want to see in Kinect section?

Q20 What overall changes you want to see on our new website?


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Q21 Your name:

Q22 You are:

Male……………………………………………………………………………………..

Female……………………………………………………………………………….

Q23 How old are you?

10-19…………………………………………………………………………………..

20-29…………………………………………………………………………………..

30-39…………………………………………………………………………………..

Over 40………………………………………………………………………………

Q24 Your email:

Terminate

Thank you for taking part in our research. Please provide us with your email address in last

question, so that we may send you, the incentive and coupon number for the draw. We

again assure you that any personal data and email ids will not be used for any advertising

purposes.


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Task Two (B)

Questionnaire field guidance The questionnaire will target segment of market, who love playing console games and use

console’s website to gain information about it. Mostly target segment will be age between

14-30 years, with internet access at home or mobiles. We will select our respondent sample

from customers of different games shops by conducting screening interviews in these shops

on the bases of three variables i.e. age, internet usage and gaming experience. This is

because respondents with different ages have different internet exposure and may have

different attitudes and perceptions about the website. Their gaming experience will also

helpful in assuming how informative they are about the games and consoles and what

source they use to stay informed i.e. console website, magazine or other games websites.

We will ask for the email addresses from the respondents we will select for our research.

We will select 100% more respondents to maximise our response rate. From our

respondents we will select 50% respondents who have internet access at home because

their exposure to internet may be more than others. 25% of rest will be those we have

mobile internet or both mobile and home internet. While remaining 25% will be those who

use internet in libraries and internet cafes. This division of respondents will allow us to cope

with any sampling issue.

People will be asked about the current website of Xbox 360 i.e. www.xbox.com/en-Gb. Most

of questions will revolve around the attitude, perception and they way people navigate

through website to collect quantitative data to complete our objectives. So respondents will

be provided with Xbox and competitors’ website in email invitation. A brief introduction of

the project will be added in the invitation as well, so that respondent could recall about the

screening interview they had in games shops and what questions they are going to answer.

The survey will be administered between 12th

to 14th

weeks of the project. Before

administering questionnaire pilot and pilot debriefing phases will be conducted in week 10

and 11. The sample size for pilot phase will be 20. The sample size for pilot will be chosen

while conducting screening interviews.

The questionnaire will be implemented online. We will use a hyper-link to questionnaire via

email addresses collected during screening interviews in respondents selection phase. We

will use snap to administer questionnaire.

Response rate maximization

For any research, response rate are very important to achieve surveys objectives. So it is

necessary to get enough responses from respondents to collect needed data for analysis. To

increase response rate of the questionnaire we will recommend followings


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To increase response rate we recommend considering email content carefully. We

recommend following tips.

• Spam language shouldn’t be used in the message or in subject

• Including your contact number.

• Personalization of email invitation i.e. include name of the respondents in the body.

• Tell the respondents in email that how long the survey will take to complete and

indicate the cut-off date

We will use SNAP software to administer our questionnaire. It will make our questionnaire

easy to use by respondents as they will be able to navigate through it easily. We can use

graphics to make them understand the questions and topics so that they can answer the

questions easily. This will increase the response rate for the questionnaire.

To increase response rate we recommend that there should be an incentive for those who

will agree to complete the questionnaire. We suggest a 15 pound incentive to each of the

respondents and an entry into a lucky draw to win one of ten game-consoles with full

accessories and 10 games. This will encourage the respondents to complete the

questionnaire.

To maximise response rate we also recommend sending reminder emails to respondents

who didn’t reply within first 2 days of email sending. This will remind them of the

questionnaire. We recommend quoting incentives for completing questionnaire in reminder

email to encourage in case they forget about it.

Maximizing Data Accuracy

We recommend using of statistical package SPSS to insert responses automatically to reduce

any human error in data entry and coding to increase data accuracy. We also recommend to

wait for as many responses as we can get in a predefine time period so that any errors in

answers by the respondents can be compensated.

We also suggest to automatically validating data because if a data value is entered in an

incorrect format, the web-base software can produce an error message requesting the

participant to enter a valid data type and submit questionnaire again. This will help to lower

data entry errors which can be made because of human error.

Data protection

We are members of MRS so we have to assure our respondents that we always follow MRS

codes of conduct (revised 2005) on personal information and Data Protection Act (1998). So

all the data our respondent will provide us, we will not use that data for another purpose

other than this project. Their data will be kept in our secure data base. But we might contact

our respondents for any future research. Respondents will be informed honestly and openly


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about the research they are taking part. We also have to ensure that we respect the rights

and well beings of our respondents. We will also respect the respondent’s right to withdraw

from our survey at any stage. We will also delete any response given by respondents, if

requested. We will obtain consent of parent or responsible adult of children under 16 during

screening interviews.

(Word count 918)


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References Wilson, A (2006) Marketing Research: An integrated Approach, 2

nd ed., FT Prentice Hall

Websites:

Geog, 2010, http://www.geog.le.ac.uk accessed


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Task Three

Introduction Today internet has made this world a global village and it is almost necessary for every big

and customer oriented company to have a well developed website which can fulfil its

customer needs and want about being in contact with the organizations from their home.

On other hand it also helps organization to be in contact with its customers and gives an

advantage to check the satisfaction of its customer. So for Microsoft, Xbox’s website is also

an important to be in contact with its Xbox customers. To check the satisfaction level of

customer a customer satisfaction survey will be run on the Xbox website via link to an online

questionnaire. This questionnaire will be very helpful to monitor customers’ satisfaction and

will also help in making new marketing decisions in future. There are some findings in

support of choosing online research.

Findings

Online questionnaire A set of carefully written questions; submitted to consumers on internet using email, web

links, social media etc to gain statistical information, that would assist researchers in

achieving needed data to fulfil research objectives.

Reasons for increase use of online questionnaires

• Speed of delivery and low cost

Online questionnaire are fast to administer and to report. Internet has made

communication very fast and cheap. An email embedded questionnaire can be sent and

received in seconds and can cost 25-40 % less.

• Flexible format

In online questionnaire we can embed sound and moving images to make its more clear and

easy to understand. While correction can be made easily, as reprint is not required

• Global reach

Online questionnaire are being widely used now because of their low-cost and immediate

global reach. These help researchers to select a sample from all around the world and get

their response almost immediately.

• Less time for data analysis


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While conducting research through online questionnaire, data is gathered into a central

database, which reduced the time to analyse it, as researchers don’t have to rewrite all the

data on papers into computer.

• Respondent convenience

Online questionnaires can be completed at the respondent convenience. Respondents will

not have to go to post office to post the completed questionnaire back to customer. They

just have to email completed questionnaire back to sender without any special effort.

Sampling issues involved in using website to obtain

respondent for survey While sampling for an online questionnaire there is a serious issue of not having access to a

central registry, or database, which creates problem in selecting an accurate sampling

frame. There is also a sampling issue that there is no any way to check how many users are

using same computer to login to website or how many accounts a single user has for

organizations website. Because of this, its mean random or representative sampling is not

possible, placing serious restrictions on quality of web-based surveys. For Xbox online

sampling is very difficult as most of Xbox users are teenagers and young people who love to

have more than two accounts. This will make it very difficult for Xbox to choose a good

sample for any on website questionnaire link. the other issue confronted by researchers is

the unavailability of a comprehensive list of email addresses of the internet population. So it

is very difficult to select a random sample for online survey. On other hand even if a

company manage to find a list of email addresses, sending email to potential respondents

who are not agree to take part in the online research in advance would like to spamming

and will be unacceptable to many people in the internet population. According to ONS

Statistics (2010) in UK 18 % of total population has never used internet, while 8 % use

internet monthly or even less, so while sampling for online an issue of missing 26 % of total

population cannot be access. Because of this issue research may over look a large number of

people who may be the customers of organization. So it may affect the result of the survey

as a large portion of population will be left out.

Comparison of response rates of an online with an offline

questionnaires For any survey to be successful a sufficient response rates are very important. There is a

difference in response rates for online and offline questionnaires because of the

respondents’ thinking about the secrecy of personal data on internet. According to A web

survey achieves a comparable response rate to a postal hardcopy questionnaire, when both

follow an advance mail notification. So there is a less response rate for online

questionnaires as compare to paper-base questionnaire because of following reasons.


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Online questionnaire can achieve more response rate within first few hours or days of

receiving it, if respondents don’t reply in this time period than while for offline

questionnaire a response can come bit later but as respondent will receive a hardcopy of

questionnaire, this will keep them reminding about the response. So it will increase the

response rate of offline questionnaire as compared to online questionnaire.

As online questionnaire are mostly created by using questionnaire software, which uses

complex graphic, grid-question and open-end questions can make online questionnaire

difficult to understand. All these reduce the likely response rate for online questionnaire,

while offline questionnaire because of their being printed on paper can be simpler, hence

increasing the response rate for offline survey.

Trust in the sponsor of survey also plays an important part in response rate. For online

surveys mostly respondent are concerned about the authenticity of survey conducting body,

while offline questionnaires are mostly sent by post or in person, this make these more

reliable in term of its sponsor’s credibility hence improving the response rate for offline

questionnaires as compare to online questionnaires.

Approaches to address issues relating online questionnaires:

• Send one or two follow up reminders

To address with low response rates caused due to respondent not replying to online

questionnaire on time, sending reminder emails to respondent will help to remind them to

respond. This will increase the response rate for the online questionnaire.

• Simple format of online questionnaire

To increase response rates online questionnaire design and format should be simple and

easily understandable by the respondents. As simple questionnaire also take less time to

complete. Respondent will likely to response simple format questionnaire more quickly.

• Increasing credibility of administrator

Response rate can also be increased by disclosing the name and background of survey

conducting organization. Respondents will feel more secure to pass their personal

information to authentic administrator.

Advantages and disadvantages of adopting online

questionnaires

Advantages

• Speed and volume of data


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Online questionnaires help to collect a huge volume of data with a speed e.g. reports which

complete online surveys are returned within 48-72 hours, making these very fast as

compare to offline questionnaires. Also online questionnaires are easy and fast to update

during pilot phase. Data can be collected continuously, independent of time.

• Cost saving

Another pro of adopting online questionnaires is substantially lower cost than offline

questionnaires. Cost of paperwork, telephone, postage, printing and travel cost may be

minimized. Software to conduct online questionnaires is mostly free to use.

• Respondent acceptability

Because online questionnaires are quick to complete and convent in term of time and place.

This makes online questionnaire more popular. For example users are mostly using

broadband for their Xbox Live and as most of the customer are young people aged 10-35,

they use internet more frequently. And it will be easy for them to take any online website

based survey rather than an offline

• Data accuracy

It’s also an advantage of adopting online questionnaires that responses can be automatically

inserted into databases or statistical software e.g. Microsoft Access, SPSS or companies own

database. This saves time and cost while reducing human errors in data entry and coding, as

data processing is automatic. Data entry errors are mostly low because of automatically

validated data.

Disadvantages

• Sampling bias

In online questionnaire sampling bias is the most questionable and common debate. Access

and use of the internet can also induce sample biases to online surveys because of social

and spatial division, e.g. if several respondents are completing questionnaires on same

computer or if a single respondent completes a questionnaire from different computer,

then researchers may lose control over the sample population.

• Technical problems

It’s not also necessary that a technology is supported by all computer e.g. for Xbox website

user should have a broadband internet connection and computer with high memory to run

flash videos on the website. So if a respondent is accessing website through a low-end Pc or

dial-up internet connection, he will not be able to access all features of the website.


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• Ethical issues

It is a major ethical issue to protect respondent privacy and confidentiality. Respondent may

consider spamming as breach of privacy. So researcher must be careful not to collect any

information without consent of respondents.

Conclusions Online questionnaire are conduct on internet and there is an increase in their use because

of being cost-effective, time saving, fast and engaging. There are some sampling issues like

difficulty in construct samples and access to internet regarding online questionnaire.

Response rate of online questionnaire as compare to offline questionnaire is low, but still

some aspects like speed and data accuracy make it first choice for companies like Microsoft.

We can increase response rate for online questionnaires by sending some reminder email,

keeping questionnaire format simple and increased data privacy.

Even though there are some disadvantages of online questionnaires but still due to huge

advantages, we will recommend that Microsoft should launch an online questionnaire to

monitor customer satisfaction using a link on Xbox website. Customer satisfaction can be

increased by increase in sales of console, response analysis from completed questionnaires

and increase in user of Xbox website.

(Word count 1638)


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Bibliography Wilson, A (2006) Marketing Research: An integrated Approach, 2

nd ed., FT Prentice Hall

Housden, M (2008) Market Information and Research, 1st

ed., Elsevier Limited

Websites

Xbox UK, 2010, www.xbox.co.uk accessed

Xbox, 2010, www.xbox.com accessed

Businessdictionary, 2010, www.businessdictionary.com accessed


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Appendix


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Background

Company Name: Microsoft

Company Division: Home Entertainment (Xbox Division)

Chairman: Bill Gates

Company Type: Public limited

Employees: 88,414 (worldwide)

Xbox is trademark and strategic business unit of Microsoft. With the start of gaming era in

1990s when PlayStation, Nintendo and Saga dominated the gamin console market,

Microsoft boss Gates decided to enter into the gaming console world. Though very late but

that Microsoft came up with the game console called XBOX in 2000. At that time gaming

market was being ruled by Sony’s PlayStation, it was very difficult for Microsoft to compete

with its competitors. Before the launch of Xbox game developers and veterans of the

gaming industry didn’t look much excited about it, as they believed that it will be a

computer in a black box which could be connected to TV. But Bill Gates effused that XBOX

would be three time more powerful then Son y’s PlayStation and it will change the face of

console gaming. Before launching the console Microsoft secured support of 156 game

developers including big names like Actvision, Edios, THQ, Konami and Capcom. But EA and

Sega was not showing any interested in XBOX. Support of EA being the Giant in the game

development industry was indeed necessary for Xbox. Microsoft heartache finished as EA

pledge to publish at least 10 games on the XBOX console, almost 12 month before the

launch of XBOX. This pledge made a great impact on the publicity of Xbox.

Finally on 06 January 2001, the Xbox was revealed by Bill Gates at Consumer Electronics

Show in Las Vegas and on 12 May 2005 Xbox 360 was officially unveiled replacing its

successor Xbox. Xbox 360 became the first console to provide wireless controllers to play

games and Xbox Live for multiplayer experience online. The console was sold out completely

at the launch. New Xbox 360 came with two different versions, The Core and The Elite which

came with a massive 120GB hard drive to install, store n safe game progress.

At 16th

July 2010 Microsoft launched a new n slim version of Xbox 360 called Xbox 360 Slim.

It is upgraded version of Xbox 360 Elite but it comes with built in Wi-Fi and a 250 GB hard

drive. Xbox 360 Slim will be followed by Kinect. The launching date for Kinect in UK is 17

November 2010. Kinect is a device which is believed to change the console gaming

experience. Previously called Project Natal will convert human body into game controller

without wearing any dedicated clothing or detectors. This clever device not only takes

commands from player’s body motions but a player will also be able to control it with his

voice. By adopting Penetration Pricing Strategy Microsoft is planning to capture a huge

market share. On other hand Microsoft will change the face of console gaming. Because of


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Xbox

360

20%Playsta

tion

31%

Ninten

do

49%

Market Share of

Gaming Console in

Q1 of 2010

XBOX LIVE and a lot of big game titles Xbox360 is the world most favourite gaming console

as compare to its competitor Sony’s PlayStation and Nintendo.

Customer Base

“Certainly XBLA is past tipping point now… We estimate there are about 16 million game

purchasers out there currently. The 360 numbers are somewhere between 40 to 50 million,

depending on who you listen to. It’s pretty healthy. 30 per cent of the hardware base is not

only online and using Xbox Live, but it’s all those and buying games. It’s got to be

encouraging for that type of distribution going forward.” (Foundation 9 CEO James North-

Hearn)

The major target market of Xbox 360 consists of game lovers of age ranging from around 10

years to 30 years basically. But the major part of this target market is teenagers and people

in their early and mid-30s. With the launching of Kinect Microsoft is trying to expand its

customer base to young kids, parents and grandparents. Now the customer base of Xbox

360 has no age limit to play. Game lovers of any age can be targeted thanks to Kinect.

Product and Services

XBOX LIVE

Kinect

Microsoft’s Xbox 360 Games

Online Console registration

Position in Market

According to Strategy Analytics, a research firm Xbox 360 has lost some of its market shares

to its competitor Sony’s PlayStation in the first quarter of 2010. The latest report of the firm

forecasts that Xbox 360 will sell 10.6 million units, compare to PlayStation’s 14 million units

and Nintendo’s 17.5 million units this year. Following graph shows the market share of 3

major home console present market shares. According to researchers forecast gaming

industry will see a decrease of overall 9% in sales in 2010.

CIM MIR Certificate Assignment Dec 2010

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