Eshon Howard
Bus 339 Marketing Research
Hard Body Research Plan
Victor Olufeso
Introduction

The Hard Body Haulers is a local moving company that is not experiencing consistent growth in revenue. The company was founded in 2008 and is located in Cleveland, Ohio; one of the fastest shrinking cities in terms of population in the United States (http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/3916000.html, 2006). This along with the high number of home foreclosures in the area indicates that people in the area are relocating to other dwellings. In contrast, the level of people unemployed in the area indicate that people do not have the discretionary resources available to them to hire a mover and are instead utilizing do it yourself alternatives (http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf, 2011). Moving costs are expensive to consumers in a recessive economy. Much of the cost of that the moving companies incur are fixed costs in the form of equipment such as vehicle maintenance, packaging supplies, and lifting equipment. Secondly, there is a high cost insurance and licensing requirements that every moving company must have in order to be in compliance with the State of Ohio (http://www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/, 2011). The availability of the moving company can also increase the costs considering that most moving companies are busiest on the last ten days of the month (Cohn, 2010). Finally, moving can be a very time consuming process. So moving companies generally charge on an hourly basis because the amount of moves that can be done during a day are limited.
Objectives
The overall objective of this marketing research plan is to determine the following: 1. Whether the cost of hiring a mover is negatively correlated with a decrease in revenue. This objective will seek to compare the costs of local moving rates with the increase/decrease in service revenue at various price levels. This information will enable us to determine what moving customers in today’s economy are willing to pay for moving services and develop an attractive pricing strategy.

2. Determine if potential customers view faster moving times as a valuable quality in a moving company. This objective will seek to determine what the average hourly time of a household move is. This information will allow us to determine where the Hard Body Haulers compare with other moving companies in terms of speed and efficiency. It is our understanding that longer moving times lead to higher costs for the consumer and we plan to capitalize on this knowledge by completing moves in less time.
Desk Research
Purpose:
Our search of secondary data will be carried out to refine the objectives and provide guidance for the next stages. More accurately, the desk research will gather data on moving cost in the Cleveland area over the last 5 years. This trend should provide useful data about the status of the marketplace.
The desk research will attempt to determine the following: • Have moving costs increased/decreased? • What price range does moving services become unattractive?
Procedure:
The search will begin internally with the Hard Body Haulers. We will contact key personnel in order to gain access to records. We expect access to internal reports on the local moving marketplace, correspondence wit past and potential consumers, regional moving patterns, and any and all complaints. These will all be used to provide a snapshot of the local marketplace for moving services and will indicate potential strengths and weakness that will assist us with the segmentation processes. In addition to these methods and external search will also be conducted. We will attempt to obtain and analyze existing market assessments by such companies as Hire a Helper and A1 Movers. We will contact all relevant trade associations, such as the local chapter of the Better Business Bureau and the Public Utilities Commission of Ohio. We will also thoroughly investigate all published statistics for any indications of household moving data.
Qualitative Research Given the nature of some of the aspects of the objectives, we will provide you with detailed qualitative information. Research will be conducted to analyzed and interpret the perception that potential customers have towards lengthier moving times and higher prices.

The qualitative aspects will review the following: • How long is too long for moving? • What is the most reasonably perceived rate for moving services?

Population and Sampling
We suggest the following groups:

|Group One |Group Two |Group Three |
|Low Moving Quote |Average Moving Quote |High Moving Quote |

These groups will be populated with: • Potential moving customers

Procedure: We will gather a random sample of potential moving customers through online community advertising resources such as Craigslist.org, Backpage.com, Kijji.com, Facebook.com, and Thumbtack.com. Each random participant will be presented with a price and timing range that will vary between the groups. This will help us determine the range at which moving clients become adverse to the prospect of hiring a mover.
Quantitative Research We propose to design and distribute questionnaires using software provided by Survey Monkey. This procedure was chosen as the most cost effective and relevant way to reach our respondents because the majority of moving quotes are provided online.
Purpose:
This stage aims to quantify a specific monetary range at which consumers are more likely to hire a mover. By establishing classification data, we will know what the maximum price consumers will be willing to pay. We have made the decision to carry out 90 tests on consumers at different price ranges. This will provide us with the opportunity to identify interesting differences in the way consumers consider price when hiring a mover.

We have set the quotas as follows:
|Moving Quote |Male |Female |Total |
|Low Quote |15 |15 |30 |
|Avg. Quote |15 |15 |30 |
|High Quote |15 |15 |30 |
|Total |45 |45 |90 |

Procedure: The questionnaire will be developed through SurveyMonkey.com and will be distributed via email to participants that request a moving quote, and through Amazon Mechanical Turk. The questionnaire will probe for the following information: • Do you consider moving a hassle? • How many times have you move in the last five years? • How many times have you hired a mover? • Do you consider moving to be too time consuming? • Are the rates moving companies charge fair? Wherever it is feasible, questions will be pre-coded but, for expense purposes, we suggest using only 4-5 open-ended questions so that the survey will only last about 10 minutes. The analysis of the data will include spreadsheet calculations in the form of frequency distributions based on population averages. We intend to weight the data in order for it to coincide with national census data. Reporting Following the qualitative portion of the research, an interim progress report will be submitted to managers of the Hard Body Haulers in order to determine the next phase of the research. After discussions with key personnel, a formal presentation of all findings will be given along with our conclusions. Timing The table below indicates our estimated time frame for the project. When the proposed project is underway, we will provide managers of the Hard Body Haulers with weekly progress reports distributed every Friday. This will allow us to summarize the week’s efforts and provide us with the additional benefit of being able to implement any adjustments suggested by managers.

|Week |Activities |
|1-3 |Desk Research |
|3-6 |Qualitative Data Gathering (Alternate Ads) |
|7 |Qualitative Report |
|8 |Questionnaire Design |
|9-10 |Pilot |
|10-12 |Quantitative Stage |
|12-13 |Questionnaire Coding Preparation |
|14 |Data Inference |
|15 |Presentation |
|18 |Final Report |

Researchers The project will be carried out under the management of Eshon Howard for EJH Marketing Ltd., and will assume day-to-day responsibilities for the project. Mr. Howard founded the company in 2000 after graduating from college. Since then, he has managed a variety of projects including several within the moving and storage industry.

References

• Cleveland.com (2011, March 1). Most Northeast Ohio county unemployment rates are now at highest level in 15 years, Retrieved March 08, 2011 from http://www.cleveland.com/datacentral/index.ssf/2009/03/post_1.html • Cohn, L. (2010). What You Need to Know About Moving. Kiplinger's Personal Finance, 64(5), 82. Retrieved from EBSCOhost. • Public Utilities Commission of Ohio (2011, March 1). Moving in Ohio: Know your rights when hiring a moving company, Retrieved March 08, 2011 from http://www.puco.ohio.gov/puco/?LinkServID=07F9AD23-EFCF-69C1-4AFF6E8A610981B2 • U.S. Census Bureau. (2006, January 12). State & county Quickfacts: Allegany County, N.Y. Retrieved March 08, 2011 from http://quickfacts.census.gov/qfd/states/39/3916000.html