In 850–1,150 words, you will write the introduction to the quantitative marketing research paper. This
section will not be titled and must contain 5 items: (1) a description of the study’s background, (2) the
intended objective/purpose of the study, (3) the problem statement, (4) the research question, and (5) the
formulated hypotheses.
In describing the background of the study (1), you will highlight the company being researched, provide
current information regarding the issue, and discuss previous studies on the issue.
After discussing the study’s background, you will articulate the specific purpose or objective (2) of the study
in a single sentence. The purpose statement must provide the reader with an understanding of what the
research will cover and what the reader can gain from reading the research (e.g., the purpose of this study
is to determine what factors caused low grill sales at Home Depot in 2015).
After discussing the objective/purpose statement, you must then state the problem to be solved in a
problem statement (3) (e.g., Home Depot had a large amount of grills in stock at the end of 2015, creating
an overstock situation, resulting in over $200,000 in lost sales for 2015).
After articulating the study’s background, the objective/purpose of the study, and the problem statement,
you will develop the approach to the problem by formulating a clear research question (4) based on the
independent and dependent variables (e.g., What effect did grill price increases have on the sale of grills at
Home Depot in 2015?) and formulate the null and alternative hypotheses variables (5) (e.g., H0: Price
increases had no effect on the sales of grills at Home Depot. H1: Price increases had an effect on the sales
of grills at Home Depot). You must incorporate at least 4 scholarly or peer-reviewed resources.
