Market Research Project

Yesterday I completed my semester-long market research project.  It was easily the hardest project I have done so far in my college career, but what I learned overshadows all the frustrations I encountered.  Many classes explain theories and have students engage in hypothetical discussions, but this was real-world experience.  My group was given the task of researching the consumption of energy drinks.  We worked with Brewer's Distributors in Peoria, IL to help them better understand how consumers do or do not purchase certain energy drinks, specifically Monster.

Our project started at the beginning of the semester with a meeting with representatives from Brewer's.  They explained the problem they wanted us to research and we then developed our research objectives.  As the semester progressed, we conducted secondary and qualitative research.  Instead of learning the definitions and examples of these topics, we actually engaged in the collection.  Based on the information we obtained from our research, we then developed a survey.

We designed a survey to address our research objective and to determine how our mediators and moderators influenced people's decisions.  We also developed a sample plan on which to base our survey collection.  For about two weeks we handed out our surveys until we reach our desired sample size.  Upon collection of our data and entering our data into SPSS, we ran calculations related to our research objective.

For the last few days we have easily put in a total of 75 hours into finishing our project.  We used the results of our calculations to produce graphs that showed the results and trends of our data.  Using our results, we thought of considerations to give to Brewer's to help address the problems they faced.  Our presentation lasted around 45 minutes, followed by 15 minutes of Q & A.

This project was very time consuming and, at times, frustrating.  Looking back I realize how great of an opportunity I had.  I was able to work with my peers and a local business to produce tangible results that can possibly be implemented.  This is experience that I can use in my professional career.

The Power Point presentation is available to view on my LinkedIn profile.

Aaron Roecker