Downtown Texarkana is undergoing a transformation through assistance from the federally funded Main Street programs in both states and increased success in gaining assistance from grants and private foundations.  For example, the city hall on the Arkansas side is on its way to being transformed into a facility that will be able to host entertainment events and business conferences.  One downtown building owner is receiving grant assistance and is considering use of the building as a small business incubator.  In any event, Texarkana could eventually have facilities for the conduct of marketing research.  Since it is likely that private foundation and government grant monies would be used to help fund the startup of such a facility, it is possible that we could enjoy substantially lower usage fees than would be possible from research facilities located in larger cities.  It might also be possible to get grant assistance for our business school to partner with such ventures, allowing decreased fees for the conduct of student and professor assisted research.

Along with lower salary costs in Texarkana, we can perhaps assume initial fees of $400 per day for IDI/focus group facility rental and $15 per qualified respondent for recruiting fees.  Using grant assisted university resources, we could perhaps offer services involving a professor at billable rates of $500 per day or $100 per hour, and student interns at billable rates of $20 to $35 per hour.  Note that even when providing not-for-profit, grant-subsidized services through the university, we would still want to build in a twenty percent margin to cover unexpected events and overhead to ensure that a project does not go below break-even.

If our client was willing to pay a reasonable fee to our school for the conduct of a focus group study, what would we promise with regard to deliverables, what would be the timeline that we would provide, and what would be a reasonable fee for our services?  Below is a proposal that could be sent to our client. 

1. Complete the parts entitled "Costs and Deliverables" and "Project Timeline."  Submit your formal copy of the entire letter which includes your addition of these two sections.  An example of a proposal is here.

2. Attach a copy of a Gantt table and Gantt chart that would be used internally to guide these activities and ensure that the project stays on time and on budget. 

3. Attach a copy of your budget worksheet that would be used internally to estimate the billables in your proposal.  In working out the budget, we need to receive $100 per hour when a Ph.D. professor meets with a client or conducts research.  For work that is conducted behind closed door by you as a student intern, we need to receive an hourly rate that equals your raw score on Quiz 1.  (E.g, if you earned 29 questions correct out of 35 on Quiz 1, then we need to bill at a rate of $29 to cover our costs of employing you inclusive of wages [half of this fee], benefits, taxes, tuition reimbursements, and such.)  Given that study participants are likely to be traveling from another county to participate in this study, our incentive would have to include the cost of travel -- hopefully, an honorarium of $125 would provide enough incentive to attract participants.  On your internal budget worksheet, be sure that you CLEARLY indicate your assumptions regarding what work would be conducted by a Ph.D. professor and what work would be conducted by a student intern.

Although you are only submitting two sections of the proposal, note that your proposed timeline and budget is for the entire project from start to finish.  Note that this is an individual assignment.

Dear Ms. Hasmatt,

Thank you for considering our consulting services.  This letter serves as an initial proposal for the conduct of the focus group research that we had discussed. 

Project Background and Objectives

People living in the proximity of a proposed medical and hazardous waste landfill have mobilized an opposition.  Your interest is in proposing an alternative location that might lead to less opposition.  We have hypothesized that factors such as population density, family income, home ownership, education level, and such, could be associated with peoples' propensities to oppose this kind of landfill. 

The present study would be an initial exploration into questions associated with the level of opposition that different kinds of people might have toward a landfill in their county.  Although we suspect that factors such as education level, income level, and population density might be associated with peoples' propensity to generate opposition to a landfill, we don't know if they actually do and, if they do, we don't know if people with lower or with higher levels on these factors are more or less likely to generate opposition.  The objective of this survey is to gain insights regarding factors that might be associated with greater or lesser opposition to a landfill. 

Methodology

Our proposal is to randomly recruit residents of a target county that you choose after reviewing the results of our demographic analysis.  You might instead prefer to sample from a multiple county area, and recruitment could easily be modified to your preference.  The quota sample of these residents would include

• some who reside in more densely populated areas and some who reside in less densely populated areas
• some who have higher income levels and some who have lower income levels
• some who have higher education levels and some who have lower education levels

Focus Group Topic Areas

Recommended discussion flow is as follows:

1. Questions regarding participants' knowledge of the currently proposed landfill in Red River county.  (If and what.)

2. Probes regarding feelings and beliefs about this particular proposed landfill if participants have any knowledge of it.

3. Probes regarding feelings and beliefs about landfills in general.

4. A promotional or educational message of about one page in length (including text and illustrations) that will be constructed in consultation with you.  This message might include such issues as the need for this kind of landfill (medical and hazardous waste), the landfill safety issues, government regulation that guarantees such safety, and aesthetic features that are currently being built into landfills of this type. 

5. Following exposure to this message, probes about feelings and beliefs regarding this kind of landfill.

6. Probes regarding feelings and behavioral intentions about a landfill if one were to be proposed near the respondent's house. 

7. Probes regarding where someone would probably look or go to find information about such landfills. 

8. Probes regarding the likelihood of local opposition to a landfill.

9. Probes regarding what might be the reasons for local opposition to a landfill.

Costs and Deliverables

We will provide you with a topline report summarizing the results of and conclusions from these sessions.  We will also provide you with a presentation of results and conclusions at our local research facility.

--COMPLETE THIS SECTION--

Project Timeline

--COMPLETE THIS SECTION--

Ms. Hasmatt, I think that about sums up our initial thoughts about your research project.  We appreciate your consideration and want you to feel free to contact us if this proposal needs any modifications in order to best suit your needs.

Cordially,

Mark Etingclass