Assignment 2. Tips on Preparing a Research Proposal Before reading this, make sure you have read the Assignment brief, the Assignment instructions, and the marking rubric. You should base your assignment on those documents. These are just some tips and hints that may help you along the way. General Comments A few things to keep in mind: · A research proposal is about how you will do research to address the marketing problem. You do not need to solve the problem, just talk about how you would get information to help solve it · The key thing in this assignment is to make sure that each of the sections link together. For example, it should be clear how you will answer each of the research questions through your chosen research design · As you work on this assignment, it is important to keep in mind your target audience-i.e., the manager who is the decision maker. Think about what information they would like to know before agreeing to commission the marketing research project. Tips for each section Many students have voiced confusion about what to include in each section of the report. Here are some tips. Executive Summary (5%) As the name suggests, an Executive Summary is written for Executives who do not have time to read the full proposal. Think of this like an elevator pitch; if you only had 2 minutes to explain to the CEO what your proposal was about, what would you say? Tips: . This is a summary of the proposal, not an introduction! Someone should be able to read only this section and decide whether they want to commission the research or not . You need to include a summary of every section of the report including the key details . Write this section last to make sure it fits the rest of the proposal · Dot points can be useful Background (5%) The background should provide relevant information to set the scene of the proposal. In a Research Proposal this generally provides a summary of the research brief (including the research objectives and research questions) that this proposal is responding to. Tips: . This section is low marks for a reason. It is largely just to summarise your understanding of the client's problem and the purpose of the research. Secondary Data (15%) Remember that we discussed research should always start with secondary data, to determine what can already be answered by existing data/ research. In a Research Proposal, we should summarise what secondary data is available, and therefore what research questions can already be answered. This helps lead to the Research Design, as there may be Objectives or Questions we will not need to collect data for. 1 1 --
Tips: · You should include 2 main sources of information; secondary data, and academic literature. It is up to you if they are separate sections or combined. . Make sure to link this to the Objectives and Questions in the brief we are responding