Basic Marketing Research 8th Edition by Tom Brown,Tracy Suter,Gilbert Churchill

Exercise 6

Using the steps of the research process to structure your thinking, evaluate the following marketing research effort:
The FlyRight Airline Company was interested in altering the interior layout of its aircraft to suit the tastes and needs of an increasing segment of its market-businesspeople. Management was planning to reduce the number of seats and install small tables to enable businesspeople to work during long flights. Prior to the renovation, management decided to do some research to ensure that these changes would suit the needs of the passengers. To keep expenses to a minimum, the following strategy was employed: Flight attendants were asked to document (1) the number of people who appeared to be working (i.e., reading reports, detailing expense accounts, or using a portable computer), (2) the number of people reading (e.g., newspapers, magazines, hardcover or paperback books), (3) the number of people sleeping, or (4) the number of people engaged in conversation. To aid documentation, an observation form was created by the airline so all the flight attendants had to do was make tally marks. The attendants were asked to complete the form prior to beverage service. The standard documentation time limited the possibility of capturing people who did more than one of these activities on any given fight. The study was conducted during the second and third week of July, as that was when lights were full. Management thought this was a good time to acquire as much information as possible; hence, the attendants were asked to add any comments they thought important to the observation form.