Academic Research and Communication Skills | Project Drafts April 2011

Figure 1. Objectives
The objectives paragraph concisely states the main points of the project in your own words. Use the sample
below to help you write the objectives for your own project. Only 4 sentences are necessary.

1st sentence concisely introduces the client & topic.
2nd sentence states the problem.
3rd sentence briefly explains research methods used.
4th sentence briefly summarises the key findings.
Sample Objectives:
This report for Dove explores the way in which foreign
companies advertise in China. Many Western companies use
concepts that are alien to the Chinese consumer, in particular
young Chinese women. This report is a result of extensive
research into the female Chinese consumer, advertising in
China and the Chinese context using a literature review,
survey and visual anthropological study. A key finding of our
project was that certain brands were associated positively with
modernity while others were associated by consumers with the
negative aspects of modern life.

Figure 2. Methodology
Explain how you did your research, in your own words. Did you use primary and secondary sources? Did you
adopt a quantitative or qualitative method (or both)? How did you sample? What problems did you encounter?

Sample Methodology:
Secondary research was important in grasping the complexities of the Chinese market. Our literature
review included key texts such Bradford J. Hall’s Among Cultures: The Challenge of Communication,
which provided important theory and research on intercultural communication. Other marketing books
such as Jian Wang’s Foreign Advertising In China: Becoming Global, Becoming Local and Ye Shi’s
P&G Strategies provide critical evidence to support the project. We focused on P&G’s Ariel campaign
as part of our analysis. We also explored other examples of Western brand campaigns in China,
including Coca-Cola and BMW. While it was difficult to get up-to-date published books in English on
the topic, we found there was a lot of timely and credible material online, including articles in
advertising journals and media coverage of various recent marketing and advertising campaigns in
China.

For our primary research, we conducted a psychographic survey via email (see Appendices 1 and 2)
in which we asked single, career orientated Chinese women aged 18-32 what values they most
identified with. We hoped to find out whether aspects of the Western lifestyle like consumerism and
individualism are growing in importance today. We sampled from our own contacts and while this is
convenience sampling, it allowed us to collect quick results and may have helped avoid an even
lower response rate. In all we managed to gather only 13 responses from our sample and we believe
a likely reason for this low response rate (we sent out 50 invitations to take the survey) was that we
were required to conduct the survey in English. Had we been able to do it in Chinese, we believe we
would have received a much higher response rate as some of the questions and concepts explored
are quite challenging for non-native speakers of English. This low response means that our margin of
error is quite significant (27.78%). Nonetheless, we believe the results are interesting enough to
warrant further study of a larger sample. Perhaps a future study could be conducted in Chinese to
increase the response rate and avoid the possible bias that English-speaking Chinese may have
towards Western concepts.
Academic Research and Communication Skills | Project Drafts April 2011

Figure 3. Questionnaire Design

Try sophisticated quantitative questions such as Likert and Semantic scales. See examples A and B below:

A. Sample Likert Scale Question

When ads appear on websites I take notice of them and often click on them.

o Strongly Agree
o Agree
o Neither Agree nor Disagree
o Strongly Disagree
o Disagree

B. Sample Semantic Scale Question

What do you think of the ads that appear on your Facebook page?

Welcome 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Intrusive
Effective 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Ineffective
Relevant 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Irrelevant
Good 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Bad
Interesting 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Boring
Friendly 1 2 3 4 5 6 7 Creepy

Figure 4. Analysis of Data

What are the significant findings?

What conclusions can you draw from these findings?
What recommendations follow on from these conclusions?

Sample Survey Data Analysis

What would make you happier than you currently are? Choose one.

It is significant that most respondents (61.54%) think that an improvement in their own salary and
therefore their ability to be independent professionals is more important than a ‘successful’ marriage.

This suggests that young Chinese women are focused on their own careers as ways of taking control
of their lives, rather than achieving success through marriage and thus giving up their independence.

The client should therefore consider identifying strong, independently successful young women as
role models and spokespeople for this demographic. Advertising should not feature family life but
rather should emphasise the busy lifestyle of a young, independent professional woman, coping with
a busy schedule yet still appearing fresh and vibrant.