Scenario 5

Scenario 5.1 Use the following to answer the question.
Because of the development of optical scanners and cable television, marketing researchers can now test the effectiveness of advertising more precisely. Volunteers in a minimum of six cities are offered food discounts in return for allowing marketing research firms to monitor grocery purchases and send trial commercials to their homes through cable television.
The research subjects shop only at stores equipped with UPC scanners, and their purchases are identified by a special card. Respondents are also told that some of the commercials they see on cable television may differ from those seen by their neighbors. Buying patterns are then compared. For example, Kashi cereals tested a Crunchy Wheat promotion using this system. Half of the 5,000 participating homes in one city saw a commercial announcing the promotion; the other half saw a commercial that did not mention the promotion. Kashi used scanner data to evaluate the promotion's success and offered the commercials nationwide.
Refer to Scenario 5.1. When the researchers compared the average sales of Crunchy Wheat for the group that saw the promotion with the average sales for the group that did not see the promotion, in which stage of the marketing research process were they?

A) Defining and locating problems
B) Reporting research findings
C) Developing hypotheses
D) Collecting data
E) Interpreting research findings