The lecture covered in-depth on the art of framing a research proposal, which is generally done by the MR agency. An effective research proposal should focus on two important parameters, the Target Group and The Banner and Panel Formation.
The Structure of a research proposal:
Background : the background is based on the brief and should be framed understanding the business context.
Objectives: objectives should clearly outline the deliverable at the end of the research.
Methodology: this is the most important part of the proposal which interests the client the most, a client is interested in knowing how the agency would proceed with the research.
under methodology we discussed about
Central Location Test: which is basically inviting respondents to a common place
other methods of collecting responses, like visiting the respondent at his place , were also discussed.
Then we touched upon
Sequential Monadic which is a method of Panel Formation.
Here various permutations and combination is tried so that respondents get different set of questions to answer thereby ensuring that their responses are not influenced by others or are pre-planned .
Banner Formation is a classification on the basis of any pattern that may emerge from the responses collected, say if there if male have a common standard answer and female have another common standard answer, we classify these responses on the basis of gender.
An effective proposal can be prepared if attention is paid to the briefing session given by the client, small little details that the client mentions may be of great help in forming the proposal.
Apart from the research proposal we also discussed about the SEC classification,
SEC in India is broadly divided into two categories, Urban and Rural,the Urban classification is done on the basis of Education of the chief wage earner and his/her occupation, divided into A,B,C,D, and E segments.
A forms the upper class, B & C form the middle class and D, E form the lower class
A similar classification in the rural areas id done on the basis of the kind of house a family has the education of its chief wage earner.
We ended the session with a note to critically analyse the SEC in India.
Aparna Iyer
