| Course | GB532 Marketing Research |
|---|---|
| Unit | Unit 10 |
| Paper type | Research report |
| Length | About 1,110 words, 7 pages double-spaced |
| Format | APA 7 student paper |
| School | Purdue University Global |
| Program | MBA |
| Updated | October 2026 |
Free sample paper for GB532 Unit 10
Pilot a Plan, Reset Deliveries, Hold Off on Installations: A Unit 10 Research Report for a Propane Distributor
[Student Name]
Purdue University Global
GB532: Marketing Research
Unit 10 Research Report
[Instructor Name]
[Date]
The propane distributor, its towns, costs and every figure are composite and illustrative; the methods and sources cited are real.
Executive Summary
The decision. Whether to launch a backup-heat offer for customers who have added heat pumps, with the answer due August 1.
What was found. About 24 percent of automatic-delivery customers, roughly 1,930 homes, now heat partly with a heat pump. They lean on the heat pump most of the season and on propane once the deep cold arrives. Interest in a backup-heat plan is broad among all customers and only slightly higher among hybrid homes. Hybrid customers are moderately less satisfied with delivery timing. Few customers want to buy heat pump services from the company.
What is recommended. Pilot the plan in four towns this fall, with four similar towns for comparison. Change delivery scheduling for hybrid homes now. Do not enter heat pump installation.
What remains uncertain. Whether the plan keeps customers, how will-call customers have changed, and what price the plan should carry.
Background and Method
Last winter's residential gallons fell about 11 percent. A secondary review of delivery tickets, degree days, prices and rebate data found that about 53 percent of the loss came from milder weather, about 27 percent from accounts using much less propane per degree day, about 9 percent from closed accounts and the rest from modest conservation. A two-stage study followed: twelve telephone interviews with flagged households, then a stratified mail survey, with an online option, that returned 653 completed questionnaires. Estimates were weighted by stratum and tenure. Malhotra (2019) describes a research report's purpose as connecting findings to the decision, and the sections below are organized that way.
Findings
Heat pump share: about 24 percent of automatic customers, within about 3.4 points.
Use pattern: a majority heat mainly with the heat pump in ordinary months, and close to two-thirds switch to propane as the main source in the hardest cold.
Plan interest: roughly half of hybrid homes and four in ten others express strong interest; the difference is statistically significant but small.
Most valued feature: guaranteed delivery during cold snaps.
Delivery timing: hybrid customers rate it about 3.6 against 4.0 for others, a moderate difference, with comments describing badly timed trucks.
Installation services: about 9 percent would consider buying them from Otter Creek.
Heat pumps have not ended these customers' need for propane; they have concentrated it into the weeks when delivering it is hardest.
Recommendation 1: Pilot the Backup-Heat Plan
Offer the plan this fall to all automatic customers in four towns in the northern part of the service area, about 600 households, and compare them over the winter with four similar towns that continue on standard terms. The plan would guarantee delivery during cold snaps, reduce the fixed annual tank and monitoring fee and price propane by actual use.
Angrist and Pischke (2009) describe comparison designs that measure a program's effect by contrasting changes in treated and untreated groups, and the pilot applies that logic: retention, gallons and satisfaction would be measured in both sets of towns before and after. The survey could measure interest; only the pilot can measure whether the plan keeps customers.
Estimated cost: about $36,000 in reduced fees and about $18,000 for tank monitors in the 150 pilot homes most at risk of running low.
Recommendation 2: Reset Delivery Schedules for Hybrid Homes
Identify hybrid homes using the survey responses, the K-factor flag and a short question added to the next billing statement, then move them from degree-day scheduling to schedules triggered by forecast cold snaps. Install tank monitors for the highest-use hybrid homes over two years.
Estimated cost: about $25,000 to update routing software, plus monitors added in stages as budgets allow, beginning with homes whose tanks have run lowest in past cold snaps. The change should reduce wasted trips in mild weather and missed deliveries in cold, benefits that justify it whether or not the plan goes ahead.
Recommendation 3: Hold Off on Heat Pump Installations
Interest in buying installation from Otter Creek is low, and the hybrid customers it would serve already have heat pumps. Revisit the question in two years.
Why the Three Belong Together
Each recommendation supports the others. The scheduling change fixes a problem hybrid customers already have and would make the pilot's promise of cold-snap delivery credible. The pilot tests whether that promise, packaged with a lower fee, keeps customers. Holding off on installations keeps the company focused on what its customers say they want from a propane supplier: fuel delivered reliably when they need it. If the pilot succeeds, the plan can be extended to all automatic customers next fall; if it fails, the scheduling change still stands on its own merits.
Costs in Context
The pilot and the scheduling change together cost roughly $80,000 in the first year. A typical automatic customer buys about 790 gallons a year. If the plan kept even 60 of the roughly 1,930 hybrid households that might otherwise leave over the next few years, the margin on their propane would cover the cost within about two winters. The pilot will show whether that is realistic.
Uncertainties
Retention is untested until the pilot runs. Will-call customers, about 1,240 accounts, were outside the survey's frame and may have changed differently. Plan pricing was not tested and must be set from cost analysis. Lohr (2021) notes that conclusions from a sample apply only to the population its frame covers, and the report's findings should be read as applying to automatic customers.
What the Pilot Must Measure
The pilot will succeed or fail on three measures, set before it starts. Retention: the share of pilot households still buying from Otter Creek in May, compared with the comparison towns. Gallons: whether hybrid households in the pilot keep buying propane in cold snaps rather than switching to electric backup. Satisfaction: delivery timing ratings, using the same question as this survey. The comparison towns must be chosen for similar heat pump shares, home sizes and winter temperatures, so that differences can be credited to the plan.
Timeline
August 1: decision on the pilot and the scheduling change. September: offer letters in pilot towns; routing software update. October to April: pilot winter. May: pilot results and a decision on wider rollout.
Appendices
The appendices hold the problem definition memo, the secondary review's source table and decomposition, the sampling plan, the questionnaire with item notes, the pretest record and the full data tables.
References
Angrist, J. D., & Pischke, J.-S. (2009). Mostly harmless econometrics: An empiricist's companion. Princeton University Press.
Lohr, S. L. (2021). Sampling: Design and analysis (3rd ed.). CRC Press.
Malhotra, N. K. (2019). Marketing research: An applied orientation (7th ed.). Pearson.
What the GB532 Unit 10 assignment asks for
The final GB532 assignment asks you to prepare a full marketing research report. Put the decision, the main findings, the recommendations and the remaining uncertainties on the first page. Compress background and method into a page or two drawn from earlier units. Present findings in plain language with their key figures. State each recommendation with its rationale and estimated cost, and design any follow-up test the research could not replace, with its measures set in advance. Explain how the recommendations fit together and what they cost in context. Close with uncertainties, a timeline and a list of appendices. Expect a full report in report format, citing research methods sources in APA 7.
How this GB532 Unit 10 example is built
The executive summary gives the decision, the 24 percent hybrid share and use pattern, three recommendations and three uncertainties. Background and method compress the decomposition and the two-stage study, citing Malhotra on connecting findings to decisions. Findings are listed, and the highlighted sentence ties them together. The pilot recommendation sets 600 households in four towns against four comparison towns, citing Angrist and Pischke, at about $54,000. The scheduling reset costs about $25,000. Installations are deferred. Sections show how the three fit together and what they cost in context, set the pilot's measures, list uncertainties citing Lohr on frame limits and give a timeline and appendices.
Where the points sit in the GB532 Unit 10 rubric
The final GB532 report is judged on whether a manager could act from page one and find every claim supported later. An executive summary with decision, findings, recommendations and uncertainties earns early credit. Compressed method drawn from earlier units shows integration. Findings in plain language with key figures show communication skill. Recommendations with rationales and costs carry significant weight. A follow-up pilot with measures set in advance shows methodological maturity. Showing how recommendations depend on each other, and what they cost in context, shows judgment. Uncertainties, a timeline and appendices complete it. Angrist and Pischke, Lohr and Malhotra are the report's APA 7 references.
GB532 Unit 10 help from the desk
Many GB532 Unit 10 reports paste earlier assignments together and bury the recommendations at the end. Others recommend action without saying what it costs or what remains uncertain. A frequent gap is the follow-up test: when a survey cannot answer the decision's central question, the report should design the test that can. Some writers present every finding with equal weight. Lead with decision, findings, recommendations and uncertainties, compress method, give findings their figures, cost each recommendation, design the pilot and its measures, show how the pieces fit, list uncertainties and plan the timeline. Telling the manager they can stop after page one is a promise the rest of the report must keep, so every figure in the summary must appear, with its source, in the pages that follow.
Get a GB532 Unit 10 example written to your instructions
Collect what your GB532 project has produced so far, memo, proposal, instrument and analysis, then add the Unit 10 instructions and grading rubric. The research report comes back in 24-48h, recommendations first and evidence behind them, with every figure checked against the earlier units. No charge applies to a first sample. The paper above is an original model document written by our desk, not a submitted student paper and not an official Purdue University Global document.
More GB532 papers and MBA samples
- GB532 Unit 1: Discussion Board Post
- GB532 Unit 2: Problem Definition Memo
- GB532 Unit 3: Secondary Data Review
- GB532 Unit 4: Research Proposal
- GB532 Unit 5: Sampling Plan
- GB532 Unit 6: Questionnaire Draft
- GB532 Unit 7: Seminar Reflection
- GB532 Unit 8: Data Analysis Report
- GB532 Unit 9: Findings Interpretation
- GB531 Unit 10: Integrated Campaign Report
- GB530 Unit 10: Marketing Plan
- GB528 Unit 10: Strategy Recommendation
- GB527 Unit 10: Operations Report
GB532 Unit 10 questions, answered
Should the final report repeat earlier assignments?
It should draw on them, condensed and revised, rather than paste them in. The problem, design and sampling usually shrink to a page or two of method. Instructors often expect earlier feedback to be addressed, so a report quietly repeating a flaw that was marked in Unit 5 tends to lose the same points twice.
How long should the executive summary be?
One page is the common expectation, and less is fine if the decision is simple. Include the decision, the key findings in plain language, the recommendations and the main uncertainty. Leave out methods detail and statistics that need explanation. If your section gives a length, follow it; the test is whether a manager could act having read nothing else.
Where do tables and statistical output belong in the report?
Mostly in appendices, with the body carrying charts or short summary tables that support each finding. Every number cited in the body should be traceable to an appendix table. Some GB532 rubrics want a methods appendix with the instrument and sampling calculation, so check the prompt and label appendices clearly for the grader.
Where can I find a free GB532 Unit 10 sample paper?
This page carries a full GB532 Unit 10 research report for a propane distributor, with a one-page executive summary, findings, three costed recommendations, a pilot design, uncertainties and APA 7 references.
Why change delivery schedules even if the pilot fails?
Hybrid customers are already less satisfied with delivery timing, and scheduling by degree days sends trucks too often in mild weather and too late in cold snaps. Fixing that helps whether or not the plan goes ahead.