Market Research on Parking on LSU campus and the campus police

Define the relevant population for this marketing study. What are the characteristics of the persons and subjects who should be included in the sample from the population? The relevant population includes those from the LSU population like students, faculty, and LSUPD, who drive and park on campus. Their perception of the LSU police department were shown to be incorrect. Preliminary research also shows a majority of the driving and parking population lives off campus. Those who suffer from the high traffic and intolerability of walking far distances to get to work may be more inclined to be corrected about their misconceptions.

Identify a sample frame plus how will it be obtained.  Discuss the degree of sample frame error present in your plan.  A list of names from the Traffic Department who is responsible for writing tickets on the campus will be obtained and used as the sample frame. The list will include the only those who have received non-moving traffic violations. This will be used with as the population, N, for the sample plan. The two sources of sample frame error occur when elements like those who violated parking rules but did not get a ticket and all others who suffered from the high traffic and possible ticket but are missing from the Traffic Department's list. The second error is that the list includes those who got non-moving violations unrelated to parking- like driving without a seatbelt- and also includes those who do not attend LSU and/or have no concern with the campus parking.

Television for your Dorm Room? Let me do some research

WHICH SAMPLE PLAN TO CHOOSE?

a. Sample Plan - Simple Random Sampling

A random numbers method will be used and each member of the sample frame will be assigned a number and the sample will be selected with a computer program which utilizes the free numerical library licensed under the GNU GPL for random sampling. The best substitution process is handled by the software to select the sample-size. The advantage of SRS is an equal and known chance of sample-size selection but it requires a complete accounting of the population and it is cumbersome to provide unique designations to every population member.

b. Sample Plan - Systematic Sampling

Our Population will be chosen randomly but more efficiently than by simple random sampling because the skip interval will be used for non responses and creates substitutes from dividing the list of the populaiton size by the desired sample size resulting in an approximate known and equal chance of selection because it is a probability sample plan. It is also efficient and is less expensive and faster that the sample random sample. The disadvantages are that there is a loss in precision.

c. Sample Plan - Cluster sampling

The population will be divided into groups based on geographic location based on proximity to campus. With these will form two groups considered to represent the non-homogeneous population. We will use the drop-down method as it applies to each group. This way the sample size will be economic efficient- by being faster and less costly than the simple random sampling. However, it is vulnerable to cluster specification error because the more homogeneous the clusters, the more precise the sample results are and we are using the two-step cluster to limit errors. Increased variance between the two clusters may decrease accuracy.

d. Sample Plane - Stratified sampling

Research assumes the subgroups are going to vary, so we will assume those who live off campus will value parking more than those who live on campus. We would expect the mean score of our questionnaire differ based on the distance traveled for the students. The off-campus students will show less variance and more agreement to the questions should be represented. The advantages of this method would be more accurate overall sample of a skewed population because the less variance in a group the less sample size it takes to produce a precise answer. This method allows the market researchers to allocate more sample size to strata with less variance and less sample size to strata with less variance Therefore, for the same sample size, the researches achieve higher precision. We would accomplish this via disproportionate sampling because students who have not experienced parking problems because they live on campus can be sampled less. Alternatively, the disadvantages are the complexity of the sampling plan requiring different sample size for each of the stratum.

e.  Sample Plan - Convenience sampling

As the only non-probability method this will give us the fastest and relatively inexpensive answers. Convenience sampling will also cost less. The sample size will represent the first names from the sample frame  who received tickets on LSU campus and who also are accessible via school email systems. Next, a list of names for the sample size based on this attribute is created. The sample frame error is going to occur because the members may be infrequent drivers or offenders, may no longer own a vehicle, or may not have a license anymore. The way the respondents are chosen presents sample errors that are avoided with the probability sampling methods. With such drastic misunderstanding of who is responsible for the tickets, the decision may be able generalized and applicable to a small sample-size say that of 300 names. These name are ultimately drawn based on the convenience and randomness of the LSU marketing research department.

Welcome to Marketing Research. We are happy to have you, subject #7089

Which of the aforementioned five sampling methods would you recommend that the students use? Why? I would recommend using the convenience sampling. Even though it is subject to problems, overall it will allow for an accurate sample-size for a large population and ultimately give a better representation of the attitudes of those students who have to drive and park on campus. For LSU Campus Police Department and Captain Mark Shaw, the results of the questionnaire should to a high degree of accuracy a sample-size that can be attributed to the entire population and they can take further research or marketing actions post-analysis.