Student Research Fuels Local Businesses

Marketing research students with the School of Business at the College of Staten Island recently completed three market research projects for Staten Island businesses.

New York Marketing Research Group team members Kristina Ivanova, Rick Liu, Andrew Ponce and Winnie Tam prepared their report, PowerPoint and a video presentation of their findings to Mr. Thomas Scarangello, Vice President of Scaran, a Staten Island based HVAC, plumbing, and oil delivery company started in 1930.

Student Researchers from Nexious Group including Catherine Jeanbart, Carmine Malandro, Enza Pappalardo and Anthony Rescigno completed their project for Dr. Steven Acker, DDS, owner of the independent community based practice, Elite Dental of Staten Island.

The first B2B (Business to Business) market research project was completed for Comtel Information Services, a telecommunications consulting firm, by Universal Insight Research team members Usman Ahmed, Javad Ali, Burhan Arshad and Barbara Scenna.

These Student Service Learning projects were detailed marketing research projects where each team met with their client to determine the problem areas, define the research objectives, constructs and measurements, and to ascertain appropriate survey methodology.

The consulting teams used Qualtics®, an automated data collection tool, applied electronically to a convenience sample of both customers/clients as well as business people via Facebook and Linkedin. The student teams performed their analysis using IBM SPSS Statistics®, a statistical software application, and then crafted a final report and PowerPoint presentation. Each team was able to confirm some basic assumptions and to identify some new insights for each business.

“The marketing project executed by the students was thorough and done with great thought and effort.  The response to the survey gave me feedback that we used in our marketing initiatives.  We did focus on the items that the survey discussed which drove potential patients to choose a particular dental practice,” commented Steven Acker, DDS, MS, Owner/President, Elite Dental of Staten Island, P.C., adding “The concept for the project was well thought out and designed to elicit specific results.  It was a learning experience for both the students and my business.”

“We have seen dramatic changes in how our industry goes to market and attracts new customers especially in the past five to ten years, noted Thomas Scarangello,  Vice President of Scaran.  “The survey results showed that we need to continue to shift our marketing budget allocations towards Internet based marketing methods.  In addition we need to focus those efforts in the social media area and our Internet based marketing must be mobile application friendly in order to be most effective.  As expected the research also reaffirmed that customers ultimately want quality, timely service at a price that allows them to feel they got a fair value for the services provided.”

Dr. Susan Holak, Founding Dean of the School of Business (interim) added “This type of service learning project helps students to make the transition from the classroom to the marketplace.  These comprehensive team assignments provide students with the opportunity to apply new skills by assisting local businesses and agencies to better understand their customers.  In so doing, the students contribute to the community while growing professionally.  We are very proud of our students in marketing research and their accomplishments.”

Dr. Thomas Tellefsen, Chair of the Marketing Department at the School of Business added, “The feedback has been great. It’s particularly gratifying when real business people speak well of our students.”

“Our ‘clients’ all came away with confirmations of trends they were observing as well as useful new information and learned from our students’ work. It’s gratifying to see students excited about doing real-world research and then see their results put to practical use by businesses,” concluded Bill Dubovsky adjunct marketing research instructor, adding that each business client received copies of the research report, the data-set used, the PowerPoint presentation, and a video of the student presentation.

STUDENTS’ TAKE

“Throughout our market research project, our team was able to provide informative market research regarding dental offices on Staten Island.  We were able to accomplish this by gathering and using primary and secondary data to design a questionnaire that was distributed to Staten Island residents. Based on the responses we received, we then analyzed and interpreted the compiled data and highlighted significant findings in our market research report.  This proved to be a great learning experience that has increased our knowledge and skills regarding market research, creating reports, and team work.” -Catherine Jeanbart (Nexious Research).

“The word ‘research’ always sounded boring to me until it became ‘Marketing Research’.  Behind every successful business is successful research. This fast paced course taught me to work efficient during deadlines and gave me experience in a very important marketing field.” – Javad Ali (Univeral Insight Research Group).

PAST PROJECTS

Past research projects from the CSI marketing research students include: a study for St. John’s University continuing education program, “Spanish for Professionals,” SCORE (Service Corps of Retired Executives)- Staten Island branch, The American Cancer Society-Staten Island Division, COAHSI/Staten Island Arts, Historic Richmond Town, Staten Island Children’s Museum, Community Health Action of Staten Island, Staten Island Mental Health Thrift Shops, NYCID-(New York Center for Interpersonal Development), the Staten Island Chamber of Commerce, as well as The Little Cupcake Bake Shop, our first for-profit client.