Assignment 3: Crosstabs Plan Memo (18 Points)

Overview

Practitioners often use the data from custom quantitative surveys to better understand and define target audiences.  Yet, this information is rarely obtained from frequency tables. Instead, analysts use cross-tabulations to understand the relationship between variables and to identify significant findings in their survey results. You saw an example of cross-tabulations when you looked at the Mintel interactive databooks.

By choosing a particular question, and then "crossing" the answer to that question with the results on another question (such as age, race, etc)., you were looking at a "cross-tabulation."

In this assignment, you will play the role of data analyst by developing a crosstab plan based on questions that your client(s) want to answer.

Directions

Choose one of the following four scenarios to use complete your Assignment:

· Scenario 1 – A grocery store chain would like to market a line of pre-made organic meals to a target audience of customers who care about their health. Develop an analysis plan using cross-tabulations that would allow you to identify & describe a primary audience for the grocery store, and an effective media strategy for reaching this primary audience using the Porter/Novelli survey and codebook

Scenario 2 - A clothing company wants to market personal care products to a a subset of men, who are not necessarily in the best physical shape, but who also care about their appearance. Develop an analysis plan that will identify & describe a primary audience and also determine the best sports partnerships for the clothing company, using the Porter/Novelli survey and codebook

Scenario 3 - A global health organization wants to create a campaign to improve health conditions for women living outside of the United States. Develop and analysis plan that will identify & describe a primary audience and inform. an approach for the best communications strategy using Pew Research Center’s 2019 Global Attitude’s Survey

Scenario 4 - A non-profit organization wants to create a campaign to get-out-the-vote in favor of transgender health care access for children/teens in Virginia and Texas in the upcoming US elections. Develop a plan that will identify & describe a primary audience and inform. an approach for creating a social or traditional media strategy using the Pew Research Center’s May 2022 Trends Panel Survey

Guidelines

Develop a Business memo that is no more than 5 pages that includes the following:

· A brief overview of the situation (no more than a sentence or two - remember you are writing to your client - they know why they have asked for an analysis plan) that includes the client's business goal

· A written explanation for what survey questions (variables) were included to create your columns and rows along with why you believe they will be important for the analysis

· A list of the questions/survey items (& variable names) that will define the audience segments that serve as the "columns.” (Do not forget to include a "total" population column)

· A list of the questions/survey items (& variable names) that will serve as the “rows” for the cross-tabulation plan.

This means your memo may include the following sections:

· Overview/Business Goal

· Target Audience

· Question Selection

· Conclusion

· Appendix

In addition, your memo should include a "header" section that includes a TO:, FROM:, DATE:, & SUBJECT: lines.

Notes

1. You will not be manipulating the data or running any actual data analysis for this assignment. Imagine you are saying to your client: "Using the results of this survey we would run the following analyses in order to see if there is a statistically significant result at the intesection of X and Y." As you can see from the survey documents, however, these are surveys that have already been sent out - the Porter/Novelli survey, for instance, was used in 2005. Consider this a pretend exercise where you are imagining that you are planning as if the survey has not yet been conducted.

2. Crosstab plans must be succinct and strategic. Do not include more than 3 columns - where each column represents an audience.

Column 1 is the "total population"

Column 2 is your primary audience

Column 3 may be another possible audience (a tertiary audience)

1. Please try not to include more than 25 row variables.

2. Remember that each survey response should be its own variable. For example, if the question asks what TV shows are watched by a respondent, and then lists 27 shows, and you want to include all 27 options as potentially significant variables, that would be 27 rows.

3. For each survey variable include the question wording and its code (example provided below)

4. Once you have defined and explained your segments (columns) you should name these groups to make your discussion of them easier (for example youth ages 7-10 who eat dairy become "milk kids" in the column)

5. You do not need to include a references page unless you choose to do some outside research for some reason - the Codebook is an internal document and you can assume that readers will be familiar with it and not need a citation.

6. Your memo should be no more than 5 pages, typed, 1.5" spaced. Tables, survey questions and visuals can be included as appendices.

7. You are welcome and encouraged to collaborate on this assignment with your classmates! Feel free to complete this activity in teams or pairs.

8. Have fun. Learning should be fun. You can imagine any possible name for yourself, for the person you are writing to, for the initiative/campaign you are writing about. If you want to create some fictitous details to help give color to your context - feel free!

Crosstabs Memo: Rubric

Variable Selection: 8 points

Exemplary work and full credit means variables are selected with a research strategy in mind. Column variables are thoughtful and correctly crafted. Satisfactory work will select variables that provide insight with column variables adequately created from multiple variables, but lacking specificity.

Justification: 5 points

Exemplary work and full credit means that the justification is clearly well thought out and well organized. The student ties the variables together and paints a clear picture as to what data he/she anticipates. The discussion of column variable selection is strong.

Writing: 5 points

Exemplary work and full credit will mean the memo is organized in an appropriate format with specified length. Writing will be proof-read and edited for clarity, grammar and spelling. Variable details are organized and easy to follow.

Also - please review the proper format for a business memo. If you have a never written a memo - now is the time to learn! https://courses.lumenlearning.com/wm-businesscommunicationmgrs/chapter/memos/

Intellectual Property Agreement Signed?  If you are using the Porter/Novelli Codebook, you must sign and submit an Intellectual Property agreement with your assignment.Consider it part of your "writing points" for this activity.

Continue reading for an example of how to determine what counts as "one variable" for your activity.

Mapping your Variables

Give yourself some time to work through your codebook. Think of it like a puzzle. How do you know if the survey question you are looking at should result in one variable item, or more? The answer is, it depends. And sometimes, you won't choose to use all of the possible variables from a single survey question.

Here is an example from the Porter/Novelli survey (used for Scenarios 1 and 2 from the assignment):

Which of the following media sources do you turn to most often for each of the following reasons?

(choose only one response for each question)

Now imagine if you were answering this question as a survey respondent. What do you use most often to keep up with current news and world events? Your answer is variable: MSNEWS. You only get to choose one of the possible options for your response. Likewise, what do you use most often to keep up with entertainment news? That is variable MSTREND. There are two variables we can draw on from the results of this question.

Here is another survey question:

Which of the following organizations have you donated money to in the past year? (choose all that apply)

In this example, while there is only 1 question there are 12 Responses (yes or no for each organization) - so there are 12 Variables.

Variables: ORGDO1, ORGDO2, ORGDO3 ....ORGDO12

Now imagine that I am writing a memo for a possible client, the Sierra Club. They are a U.S. based environmental organization that relies on individual donations. They are developing a new campaign to align with “Giving Tuesday” in November 2022. The organization wants to know which media sources it should use to strategically place advertisements to reach likely individual donors for its new campaign.

As I begin to develop my list of items for analysis - I want to include the  first 6 variables listed from the previous 2 survey questions in my cross-tabulation plan because I know that donors to the Cancer Society, Big Brothers/Big Sisters, The Arthritis Foundation & The World Wildlife Fund also donate to my organization. I choose to include:

Which of the following media sources do you turn to most often for each of the following reasons?

1. MSNEWS (b1-b5)

2. MSTREND (b1-b5)

Which of the following organizations have you donated money to in the past year?  (“X” all that apply)

1. ORGDO 1   American Cancer Society

2. ORGDO 2   Big Brothers/Big Sisters

3. ORGDO 3   Arthritis Foundation

4. ORGDO 4   World Wildlife Fund

This list of variables is not the total list for my plan. And it will not create the full cross-tabulation table. I will still need to explain which variables are used to create my columns (audiences) and my rows. But I have definitely got a great start.

Sample Memos

Here are two past examples of students work based on scenarios that are not included in this Assignment. In SAMPLE ONE the student was given survey guide and scenario that was based on a company trying to design a "Return-to-work" policy for its employees in a post-Covid planning environment. In SAMPLE TWO the student is using the Porter-Novelli survey to design a cross-tab plan for a company designing new personal care products for men, aged 18-49 who care about their appearance.

***** VERY IMPORTANT ***** PLEASE DO NOT COPY THE FORMAT OF THESE SAMPLES DIRECTLY. THE FORMAT MAY NOT FIT YOUR CONTEXT. PLEASE CHOOSE AN ORGANIZATIONAL FORMAT THAT FITS YOUR CONTEXT.