Management > CASE STUDY > Algonquin College - MGT 2355American Idol Case Study Complete (All)

Algonquin College - MGT 2355American Idol Case Study Complete

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AMERICAN IDOL - A Big Hit for Marketing Research? “This could be more of a challenge than we previously thought,” Melissa Marcello told her business associate Julie Litzenberger. After nodding in agreement, Litzenberger put down her cup of coffee at the Vienna, Virginia, Starbucks coffee shop near her firm’s headquarters. Both Marcello and Litzenberger were far along their career paths as researchers in 2013 when they met at Starbucks. Marcello was CEO of a research agency and Litzenberger led the public relations division at marketing communications agency Sage Communications. Both were based in the Washington, DC area. Litzenberger took the last bite of her cinnamon scone before sipping her latte. She nodded again to Marcello across the table for two before answering. “Research studies that are the most successful in moving the needle are the studies where the research firm uses scientific and credible methods, poses the right questions, and provides the client company with the insights needed to sufficiently reduce risk in decision making,” Litzenberger said. “In short, improving decision making is what effective marketing research is about.” Over the years, Marcello and Litzenberger had witnessed prospective client companies voicing resistance to pursuing marketing research. Skeptics of professional marketing research sometimes would say that they “already knew enough about customers to make decisions.” Other times, skeptics would assail the sampling methods of studies in an attempt to dismiss the results. And in other instances, skeptics would merely claim that finding the answers to such questions about customers would be too expensive to obtain. In sum, professionally done marketing research was presented as being impractical. Marcello and Litzenberger were attempting to overcome a challenge in client development. Specifically, they were attempting to obtain evidence to confront skeptics of professionally done marketing research without compromising the privacy of previous clients with whom they had worked. It was inappropriate for them to share the results of previous studies with anyone other than the clients who had contracted them for those studies. While considering dozens of ideas over the past three weeks of project development brainstorming sessions, Marcello and Litzenberger were now focused on one project for demonstrating the usefulness of marketing research to prospective clients. The research question was: “What still needs to be known about the viewers and voters for contestants of the popular TV show American Idol?” American Idol is an annual televised singing competition that began its first season in 2002. The program has always sought to discover the best young singer in the United States. Each year, a series of nationwide auditions are followed by a series of telecasts featuring the singers who advance to the next week’s show based on public voting. Throughout the show’s history, three or four judges have critiqued the singing of surviving contestants each week, and good-guy Ryan Seacrest has hosted the show each year. Judges for the twelfth season (2013) were Mariah Carey, Randy Jackson, Nicki Minaj, and Keith Urban

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