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Critical Thinking Exercises

1. 
Draw a diagram depicting a marketing information system. Show how the marketing research process connects marketing managers with the marketing environment in order to collect information through internal records, marketing intelligence, and marketing research. Remember that the overall intent is first to assess information needs in order to reduce information gaps between the company and its customers, target markets, suppliers, and prospective clients. Amassing timely information allows firms to address these gaps, design the method for collecting information, manage and implement the data collection process, analyze the results, and disseminate results and their implications.
2. 
Conduct a survey of five college students via email, social media, telephone, or in person to learn more about the student demographic. Explain that you are collecting data for a classroom assignment only and will not identify them by name.

Ask these questions:

  1. If you could adopt a rescue animal today, what would it be?
  2. What is the best pizza topping?
  3. Would you rather sneeze for an hour or have hiccups for an hour?
  4. Would you rather get $1 million right now or $10,000 per month for a lifetime?
  5. What is your least favorite food?
  • 2a. Summarize and report your results in a chart.
  • 2b. C and D are structurally different questions than A, B, and E. What is different between these questions?
  • 2c. Can your findings be applied to all college students? Why or why not?
3. 
The US Census gathers and disseminates detailed big data about US residents. Visit Explore Census Data and type your hometown into the search box. The results will include maps, web pages mentioning your hometown, and tables of information gathered by the decennial census as well as the American Community Survey. What method was used to collect this data? Do these tables represent probability or nonprobability samples? Why might these tables be important informational sources for marketers? Check out the table reporting age and sex. What is the median age? Does this statistic surprise you?
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