A Case Study of Teaching Marketing Research Using Client-Sponsored Projects

This case study outlines the use of client-sponsored research projects in a quantitative postgraduate marketing research subject conducted in a 12-week semester in a research-intensive Australian university. The case study attempts to address the dearth of recent literature on client-sponsored research projects in the discipline of marketing. Evaluation results provided from students in a 3-year period indicate support for the use of client-sponsored projects because they provide a number of benefits. In particular, students feel that such projects give invaluable opportunities to develop consulting and research skills that are highly sought after by industry. However, despite the advantages of the client-sponsored research projects, the quantitative nature of the marketing research subject is still an impediment to attaining high student quality teaching scores. Furthermore, there can be problems if students lack basic statistical knowledge, do not practice SPSS outside of class, and segment project tasks within the team. Finally, although client-sponsored marketing research projects can improve the profile of marketing research courses, they demand high levels of energy by the lecturer, a small class size (up to 35 students), and are dependent on a strong degree of client commitment.