The Effect of Cultural Values on Marketing Response Rates

Individual Exercise #2: Construct and Run a Field Experiment
You are working on a project that explores various ways to improve marketing communication strategies to increase advertising response rates. From previous research you know that researchers have long been working on field experiments conducted on social media platforms like Facebook to understand how customers react to advertisements that are personalized based on a customer’s posted personal information. In an effort to extend common practices, you are willing to find out how customized marketing messages work differently in various customer segments that hold different cultural values. Using dimensions other than prior browsing behavior or posted personal information you specifically aim to understand why cultural patterns make a difference when it comes to customers’ reactions to ads.
For this exercise you design and carry out a small field experiment using a randomized post-test-only between-subjects (control group) design. You devise a manipulable independent variable and a measurable dependent variable.
Planning Your Experiment
In planning your experiment, you need to figure out each of the following:
A "setup," the basic thing that will be happening in your experiment (e.g. a survey, a vignette, a visual).
A manipulable independent variable, with a careful operationalization of the differences among the categories or treatments. There should be only one variable with two or three categories.
An operationalized dependent variable which can be objectively and consistently measured for all subjects, regardless of the treatment they receive.
A sampling plan. A plan for randomly assigning subjects to treatments that is properly random and that is practical in the situation you have devised.
A plan for holding constant all aspects of the situation and your behavior except the independent variable or things which can be randomized.
Your experiment should have only one independent variable and one dependent variable. You may have additional independent or dependent variables only if you are sure you know what you are doing (don’t forget extra variables mean running more complicated experiments). If you think you know how to run a multi-level experiment (more than one independent variable) and want to do so, please talk with me on how to work with factorial designs.
Running your Experiment
Follow your plan and obtain a minimum of 10 cases (i.e. units of analysis) for each category of the independent variable. If the independent variable has 2 categories, this will be 20 cases. Analyze your data in SPSS, make sure to run appropriate tests (it is usually analysis of variance tests).
Title page. Write the title of your experimental study.
Abstract. Write one paragraph which summarizes your hypothesis, experimental research methods, and findings.
Introduction. Write a paragraph stating your bivariate hypothesis and why it is worth researching (have citations to readings-secondary sources)
Methods of research. The "set up" of an experiment is the context within which the independent and dependent variables operate. Describe the "setup" of your experiment in enough detail so that a reader can picture the situation.
Independent variable. What was the conceptual variable you were trying to capture by your experimental manipulation?
Dependent variable. What was the conceptual variable you were trying to measure?
Experimental Control. Details on the things about your procedures or behavior you consciously brought under experimental control through holding constant.
Sampling. Specify your unit of analysis (individual, group, time period, trial). Describe your sampling procedures, including location and time, any restrictions placed on eligible subjects, or other procedures for deciding whom to study.
Randomization. In real professional experiments, randomization is usually taken for granted and not discussed. Because this is a course assignment, I want you to describe how you randomly assigned units of analysis to categories of the independent variable. Say what your random device was (coin flips, shuffling, etc.) but, more importantly, explain how you worked the randomization into the flow of the whole experiment. How did you prevent selection biases.
Results. Present a bivariate statistical table to show the relationship between your independent variable and dependent variable. Do either a contingency table or a difference of means table. If your dependent variable is categorical, present a contingency table. For the statistical test of the hypothesis, do a chi-square. If your dependent variable is continuous, compute the mean for the dependent variable separately for the cases in each category of the independent variable. Do analysis of variance tests to determine the statistical significance of results. Write a paragraph discussing your statistical results, saying what they show and whether your hypothesis is confirmed or disconfirmed.
Conclusions, interpretation, limitations. This is where you talk about the larger issues your research raises. In this context, please discuss the ethical issues that may have been involved in "manipulating" people in your setting. This is also the place to talk about limitations of the research and about what you liked or didn't like about running the experiment.