Marketing Research

1. NC State University Television Commercial Marketing Research

2.                             Emily Street            Ryan Didsbury                            Amanda Keim         Daria Petrovic                            Daniel Tanaka         Scott Simpson Ad Venture Marketing

3. VS.

4. NC State Television Commercial

5. Problem Identification/Hypotheses Problem Identification: We perceived there could be a problem with the effectiveness of the current NC State television commercial.   Hypotheses: • H1)We hypothesize that the commercial’s perceived         (a) personal tone and         (b) appropriate length have a positive relationship in generating             interest in NC State University. • (H2) We hypothesize that students will have a negative reaction to the spokesperson.  • (H3) We hypothesize that the current commercial does not create interest in a majority of prospective students. .    

6. Research Design • Our initial objective and questions were too broad to cover with the time limitations of the research project. • We narrowed down our research objective and questions. Research Objective:  Identify how effective the current NC State  television commercial   is in generating interest in prospective high school students. ResearchQuestions: • Have prospective students seen NC State's TV Commercial?     • What are the strengths and weaknesses of the current NC State Commercial? • Is current NC State commercial effective in increasing interest in the University?    

7. Target Market • Freshman vs. High School Students • Decided to survey high school students for more relevant responses • Conducted focus groups • Used this information to develop and refine survey questions.  • Survey Design • Distributed survey to high school juniors and seniors

8. Focus Group • Focus Group preparation included contacting several high schools in the area including Cary Academy, St. David’s and Broughton High School • Conducted two focus groups at a class at Broughton High School • Class was split into two groups of 8 people with two team members at each focus group  • Sample questions for the focus group included:      • How did the commercial come across to you?  • What did you think of the speaker/spokesperson?

9. Focus Group Responses Group One: 1.They thought the commercial information was informative, positive and scientific based.  2.They thought the spokesperson was friendly and engaging. Group Two: 1.They thought the commercial information was disjointed, overwhelming and rushed. 2.They thought the spokesperson was professional, articulate, and assertive.

10.                       The Survey •  * Main Purpose: Measure the effectiveness of the NC State commercial amongst high school students •  -Main Dependent Variable: Interest in learning more about NC State • - Independent Variables Included:  •     a. Clarity of  the commercial •     b. Impact of the Spokesman                                             •     c. Length of the commercial • Survey was finalized by findings from the focus groups • - Collected survey responses from a class at Broughton high school • - Survey Monkey was used to distribute the online survey to high school juniors and seniors

15. Questionnare Results • Out of 130 total respondents, 100 were deemed suitable for Statistical Analysis via screening •  Our Descriptive Analysis yielded some very interesting results: •  75% of our respondents hadn't seen this year's NC State commercial, which could be a huge problem with its effectiveness  • 85% indicated Facebook as a website they visited daily but Twitter was one of the LEAST chosen with only 16%

16. Questionnaire Results (Cont'd) • Our main competitor, UNC-Chapel Hill was the intended college of nearly 40% of respondents, versus NC State's almost 20%, with the remaining students choosing "Other"

17. Questionnaire Results (Cont'd) • The average student did not feel that the speaker had a negative impact on the commercial, rating the speaker at 3.62 on a 5-point scale; this is not overwhelmingly positive either, however • With an average scaled response of 4.019, respondents tended to agree that the commercial was "unique"

18. Questionnaire Results (Cont'd) • A Chi-Square Test was used to determine if the following variables were related: • Which College? & Have You Seen the Commercial Before? • With a test statistic of 7.0014 and a probability of 0.0302, a significant relationship was found to exist • Which College? & Which Sites Do You Visit Most Often?  • After conducting independent chi-square tests for Facebook,Youtube, and Google, NONE were found to have a significant relationship with which college respondents planned on attending  • Which College? & Gender of the Respondent • A test statistic of 4.2817 and a probability of .1213 shows that the gender of the respondent has NO relationship with which college they chose

19. Questionnaire Results (Cont'd) • Using  Linear Regression, however, had much more positive results: • Using Multiple Regression, "Tone" and the Spokesperson's impact were tested as significant predictors of "Interest" in learning more about NC State after seeing the commercial • "Tone" (pr = <.0001)  and the Spokesperson (pr = .0030)  of the commercial seemed to each have a positive relationship with future interest in NC State, combining to have a correlation coefficient of R-Square =.4799 •  Respondents' opinions about the "Tone" of the commercial had a significant association with with their opinion about the Spokesperson's impact (pr = <.0001) and a correlation coefficient of R-Square =0.4159

20. Questionnaire Results (Cont'd) • Lastly, One-Way ANOVA was used in our Statistical Analysis: • We wished to see if the means between prior commercial exposure were significantly different than interest in NC State • This test yielded a significant difference with Pr>F= .0008, with the means of having seen the commercial tending to increase as the degree of interest in learning more about NC State increased, showing a positive relationship between the two variables 

21. Results of Hypotheses Tested • H1)We hypothesize that the commercial’s perceived         (a) personal tone and         (b) appropriate length have a positive relationship in generating             interest in NC State University. • Personal tone had direct relationship, length had no relationship. • (H2) We hypothesize that students will have a negative reaction to the spokesperson.  • Proven false, majority of students had a neutral to positive reaction to the spokesperson, with an average rating of 3.62 out of a 5-point scale.  • (H3) We hypothesize that the current commercial does not create interest in a majority of prospective students. • Proven false, students were moderately interested in learning more with an average score of 3.52 out of 5 point scale.

22. Major Findings • Out of all variables tested the most significant relationships were between tone, spokesperson and interest in NC State. • Relationship shows that tone has a major impact in generating interest.

23. Major Findings • Spokesperson's impact on the commercial

24. Conclusions, Recommendations and Limitations • Speaker and tone are related to generating interest in NC State, both aspects can be improved to increase average interest in prospective high school students. • Low exposure to commercial with only 25% of respondents having seen it before. • High usage of Facebook-85% of respondents use it daily. • Direct relationship between interest and previous exposure to commercial. • Increased exposure could increase interested generated in prospective students. • Limited in time, lack of budget for incentives, and incomplete surveys.

25. Questions?