MARKETING RESEARCH

Only attempt 4 case study.

CASE – 1   Consumer Perception of High-end IT Education

This case study of recent origin (2001), illustrates the use of free-response questions which permit respondents to give unstructured answers. The responses are given in the form of excerpted quotes from the study at the end of the case. The entire study was bigger in scope and results. These reported results are only for the purpose of illustration and do not constitute the complete analysis.

BACKGROUND

SSI, a computer education centre, has added Internet to its portfolio. Now SSI plans to re-launch its course called Internet in its updated form. The course includes ASP, XML, WAP, .NET and BLUETOOTH, the last one being offered only by SSI’s Internet.

Research Objectives

To find out

• the deciding factors for taking up a particular High-End I.T. course.

• whether the course contents of Internet are actually in “demand”.

• the strengths and weaknesses of Internet.

Methodology

Collecting information through

• questionnaires

• face-to-face interviews

• telephonic interviews

• internet

Sample Composition

Students of SSI as well as from competing computer education providers (NIIT, Aptech, Radiant, Tata Infotech).

Sample size : 80 (25% SSI + 75% others)

Results from Some Free Response Questions for Students’ Comments

The following are quotations from some students’ comments on the institute, course, and so on.

“Right now the I.T. market in U.S. has gone down. Bluetooth is still in a kind of an infancy stage with no real commercially proven success. There is a lot of investment in the technology. Recently it has hit a few roadblocks—you will see from the info in the links (viz http://www.bluetooth.com/ and http://www.zdnet.co.uk/news/specials/1999/04/bluetooth/)”

• Computer professional (New Jersey, USA)

“MS (Micro Soft) has come up with the .NET, which works on the Windows 2000 platform. Anything to do with Internet will be ‘hot’. And MS won’t leave it halfway”.

• Faculty (Radiant)

“I did my GNIIT, now I am doing Java at RADIANT. Did not continue there because I wanted to do only Java; and NIIT, though it is very good, has only long-term courses. Want to get into an I.T. career. From what I have heard, Aptech is not up to the mark. Don’t know much about SSI or Internet. .NET is the latest course here.”

• Student (Radiant)

“I am doing Radiant.NET with C#, ASP.NET, XML, SOAP, and so forth because it is the latest after Java”.

• Student (Radiant)

“I joined Radiant because I heard that the course material is very good. Faculty is also good. Finished my Java from there. And I plan to do a post graduate in I.T. NIIT is too expensive. Cost-wise, I guess SSI and Radiant are comparable. Don’t know more about SSI.”

• Student (Radiant)

“I did my Java from TCI because I stay close by (Annanagar). Radiant is more expensive. Also TCI gives me a ‘Government of India’ certificate. I am working as a web page designer. I am being trained in XML and so on by my company itself.”

• Ex-Student (TCI)

“.NET has not yet come into the market. hence we do not have the course. We have C#, XML, WAP.”

• Counselor (NIIT)

“Of course NIIT is expensive compared to the other institutes. But when one is focussed on one’s career, one does not crib about money. After interacting with my faculty, I have a very good knowledge about the I.T. world. Now I would not even think of changing. I have a background in BCA and am doing my Java here.”

• Student (NIIT)

“NIIT has got a name that is recognised the world over more than any other institute in India. Hence I prefer to be in NIIT. I plan to work abroad. I am currently doing E-Commerce course in NIIT, which includes XML, ASP, WAP and so forth.”

• Student (NIIT)

“I just know about NIIT. So I am here. Plan to do a short-term course here itself after my GNIIT, which I will finish this year.”

• Student (NIIT)

“I have no background in computers, but I do not find any difficulty in doing my Internet course. NIIT and APTECH are too expensive.”

• Student (SSI)

Question

1. Write don a brief summary of all the answers given above. How does this differ from the analysis of structured-response questions?