Once again, refer to prior assignments associated with our IRS client.  Our concern is with what kind of information is needed in promotional posters to persuade people to use the free tax assistance service.

It is uncertain as to what kind of budget our client might have to study what would make the most effective promotional posters.  Focus group interviews are expensive and time consuming, and even TDIs could be more expensive in money and time than our client's department would be able to invest.  On the chance that primary data collection is not possible, we could at least gain insights from existing secondary data.  One quick and relatively cheap way to gain some initial insights is to assess user comments that people have posted regarding what they like or dislike about using a competitor product, computer-assisted income tax preparation.

Visit Epinions.com reviews of "Quicken TurboTax for the web" and do a written content analysis of the most recent forty comments that are posted.  Your analysis must not be anecdotal, but must be based on an analysis that is substantiated with the spreadsheet method that we used in class.  The objective of this research is to determine what users like and dislike about this particular income tax preparation service.  Your report should end with recommendations regarding features that should be emphasized when promoting our client's free tax preparation service.

Do not do an analysis of all of the evaluations that are posted; use only the most recent forty reviews with one exception: don't use any review that is labeled as "top reviewer".  Be sure that the list of reviews is sorted by date, starting with the most recent.  Note that the link above should result in a date-sorted list; clicking on "sort by review date" will reverse the sorting.  Be sure that the list is sorted to start with the most recent.

Although the report itself is to be an individual effort, you are encouraged to work collaboratively with other class members to develop the grid that is used in your analysis. 

Your report must include the following format, not necessarily with any sort of headings:

1. objectives of the research
2. source of the data
3. discussion of the methodology
4. discussion of the findings
5. discussion of the conclusions
   (implications / recommendations)

The report should not include the spreadsheet itself; the spreadsheet is merely a working document that is a tool to assist in your analysis.  That is, the report should be understandable without your spreadsheet.  However, your spreadsheet must be readily available if the client wants to see it.  For the sake of grading your report for this class, you must submit your spreadsheet as a separate (independent) document.  Again, while you are encouraged to work collaboratively in developing the spreadsheet, your submission, including the spreadsheet, is to be your own individual work.