20 Jan 2014

Business Research Methods

Report on

BURKE
Submitted to

DR. VSR Vijaykumar

Company information Burke is one of the premier international research and consulting firms in the world. For nearly 80 years, Burke has helped manufacturing and service companies understand and accurately predict marketplace behaviour. Burke's employee owners add value to research and consulting assignments by applying superior thinking to help clients solve business problems. Burke provide our customers with data, information, guidance and far more. Burke strives to become a valued business partner who focuses on finding and implementing solutions to the most critical problems facing our clients today. Burke give our customers a competitive edge. Burke is 100% employee owned. In 2004, Burke formed an ESOP (Employee Stock Ownership Plan), ensuring that all employees are able to participate in stock ownership and
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have a personal stake in helping to contribute to the company's success. The ESOP, representing broad based employee ownership across all positions of the company, has owned 100% of the shares of Burke since January 2008. As further evidence of our outstanding quality in marketing research, Burke has attained ISO 20252 certification. Awarded by the CASRO Institute for Research Quality (CIRQ), ISO 20252 establishes quality standards for market, opinion, and social research organizations. Currently, Burke is one of only five North American companies that are certified. To achieve ISO certification, Burke engaged in an in-depth review of all processes involved in delivering research services to clients. This structured review also covered corporate policies about confidentiality and privacy, data security, employee performance assessment, subcontractor management, and systems used to gauge client satisfaction. Results of these reviews burke used to improve processes and to develop additional employee training where necessary. Burke's ISO certification does not represent a new focus on quality for Burke. Since Alberta Burke founded the company in 1931, Burke has had a focus on quality as its foundation. How Burke and the marketing research industry define quality has changed over the decades, but Burke's quality focus has always driven how burke conduct research for clients.

Services Provided As a full-service marketing research company, our services include:

Custom Marketing Research Customer Loyalty and Relationship Management Employee Engagement and Retention Management Linkage and Integration Online Research and Reporting Qualitative Research

Methodologies Followed

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Burke's stellar reputation in the marketing research industry is derived from our expertise in defining problems, developing research designs, executing complex studies, analyzing data, and interpreting results to enable our clients to make the most informed decisions possible. All of Burke's core competencies are supported by an active commitment to internal research and development programs. Burke's primary areas of focus include: Brand Assessment - Burke has conducted hundreds of brand research studies, and has experience in Brand Equity, Social Media Research, Image Research, and Awareness and Usage (A & U). Product/Service Development - From Concept Testing to Pricing Research, Burke provides research techniques that support decision-making throughout the development process. Customer Loyalty - Burke helps companies develop and deploy customer loyalty and relationship management systems to more effectively focus internal resources on customer requirements in order to improve productivity, competitiveness, and profitability. Employee Engagement - Burke offers a full set of tools to help advance and support employee engagement and retention management. Linking Data Sources - Burke leads the industry in implementing linkage programs with an overarching objective of optimizing organizational performance through fact-based decision-making. Market Segmentation - Understanding how customers differ and how organizations may be able to capitalize on those differences continues to be one of Burke's passions. Shopper Research - Burke offers a diverse set of qualitative and quantitative shopper research services.

Industries Served Burke's commitment as a learning and teaching organization extends to many facets of our industry, including the academic community. Senior Burke staff are members of the advisory boards of the leading graduate programs in marketing research in the U.S., including: University of Georgia, University of Wisconsin, University of Texas/Arlington, Southern Illinois University/Edwardsville In addition, Burke staff serve as classroom instructors, student mentors, guest speakers, and
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primary research partners in many other colleges and universities. Allegany College Bentley College Case Burkestern Reserve University Cleveland State University College of Mount Saint Joseph Emory University Florida Institute of Technology. Georgia Institute of Technology Georgia Perimeter College Illinois Institute of Technology Indiana University INSEAD Business School London Business School McGill University Miami University Northern Kentucky University Northburkestern University/ Kellogg School Ohio Dominican University The Ohio State University Rutgers University/CRM Research Center University of Cincinnati University of Dayton University of Kentucky University of Louisville University of Maryland University of Michigan University of North Carolina University of Pennsylvania/Wharton School University of Phoenix University of Pittsburgh University of Tennessee Vanderbilt University Wake Forest University Xavier University

Proprietary Tools Many organizations seeking to research the same population repeatedly are finding it useful to recruit a proprietary online panel. Having access to your own pre-recruited sets of customers and potential customers can help make research more cost-effective and improve project turnaround times. Surveys can be shorter because there is less need to collect information already gathered, and longitudinal surveying of the same panelists makes it possible to find out how peoples views change over time. Proprietary panelists can also be used for online focus groups and other qualitative efforts. Burke has long been a source its clients have turned to for longitudinal surveying of customers and prospects. As the Internet has become increasingly used for marketing research surveys, Burke has transferred its expertise in the field to the online environment.

Recruiting and Maintenance Burke can work with your organization to recruit online panellists through a number of methods. Burke can collect e-mail addresses and permission through offline (e.g., telephone, mail, etc.) research projects. Burke can also set up N-Viz on ExitWeb site intercept surveys to recruit panelists and gather profile information. Burke will also work with e-mail lists your company creates through Web site registrations and other promotional efforts. Burke directs panelists invited to participate in research to a custom Web site on its secure Internet infrastructure. Panelists can be emailed invitations based
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upon their profile information or their responses to previous surveys. Burke monitors who has responded to which survey and can avoid sending invitations to individuals who have participated too recently. Burke also helps administer incentive programs that can reduce panelist attrition. For clients seeking online access to research results, Burke can put in place a Digital Dashboard online reporting solution. Burke custom built the Veterinary Information Panel (VIP) to serve the particular needs of clients in the field of animal health. This online panel consists of 1,000 licensed veterinarians in private clinical practices a population that can be costly to survey through more traditional methods. Panelists were recruited using both offline (telephone, mail, etc.) as well as online techniques. Burke created a special VIP Web site (http://vip.burke.com/home) with a registration survey used to verify veterinarian qualifications and provide additional information used to target research participants. Although the VIP is currently accessed by a number of different animal health organizations for a wide variety of research, Burke can similarly create a panel to be used only by a single company.

References 1) http://www.burke.com/About/index.cfm?id=80 2) http://www.burke.com/Services/index.cfm 3) http://www.burke.com/About/index.cfm?id=207