American Idol Case Study

Running head: AMERICAN IDOL CASE STUDY 1

American Idol Case Study

Laura Walsh

MKG 470- Market Research

Colorado State University - Global Campus

Dr. Maryann Lamer

January 25, 2013

AMERICAN IDOL CASE STUDY 2

American Idol Case Study

Market researchers Melissa Marcello and Julie Litzenberger were faced with the problem of overcoming potential client's perception of the limited value of marketing research for their businesses. They were aware that businesses failed to see value in marketing research, but determined that some companies were receptive to marketing research if the findings could be presented in a manner that they could relate to. Marcello and Litzenberger were interested in determining how data could be presented to Coca Cola, which was the current sponsor of the American Idol TV show. The researchers were attempting to overcome prospective clients perceptions regarding the impracticality of market research and needed to develop a managerial approach of resolution to this perception.

The researchers discussed the issues of presenting information to prospective clients that would not only create value for a business, but would also overcome potential reluctance of clients. The researchers knew from previous experiences that prospective companies voiced resistance to pursuing marketing research because they believed they already knew enough about customers to make decisions, and skeptics assailed sampling methods of studies in an attempt to dismiss the results and also claimed that finding answers to questions about customers were too expensive (Basic Marketing Research, 2013).

The researchers were able to accurately define the problem, which was the first step of the marketing research process, but also needed to create a strategy to convince skeptics that their findings would be invaluable for their business. They then posed the question "What still needs to be known about the viewers and voters for the contestants of the popular TV show American

AMERICAN IDOL CASE STUDY 3

Idol?" This question would be very useful to the researchers in defining their problem and their results would be extremely valuable to sponsors of the American Idol television show. The researchers were both industry professionals who knew that they would be unable to use any prior data or case studies from previous customers, but realized that they needed to determine the reasons for lack viewer decline of the TV show. They specifically wanted to determine why the ratings were slipping in the viewer age group of adults, aged eighteen to forty-nine. They began to develop an approach to the problem, which is the second step in the marketing research process, as they discussed the slipping ratings of the show and its effect on show sponsorship.

Both of these steps that the researchers had discussed are important because good business decisions are based on accurate information and good market research can minimize risks and pay dividends (Market Research.com, 2013) which would be very important as the researchers began to determine the best approach for their problem. The researchers began to use these questions to formulate a research design which would entail creating a telephone survey of six questions for viewers aged eighteen and older and a sampling of 1,045 men and women, which would allow them to hypothesize with 95% confidence of accuracy for their results. These values were important to the researchers because they exceeded acceptable standards for surveys about media preferences (Basic Market Research, 2013), which also led to further value and credibility of their research.

The sampling size of men and women are significant