image of a gaming console controller and a soccer ball
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Nintendo wants to introduce a new version of its most popular game Wii Sports on its Wii video game console. Thus far, it has sold almost one hundred million games of this game. Nintendo would like to determine which sports to include in the new version. In the original game, Nintendo included five different sports: baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis. The company wants to add at least three additional sports to the new version of the game that were not included in other extensions of its Wii Sports game.
But which three sports should be added? Nintendo has some ideas, but wants to do some market research before proceeding. First, Nintendo plans to interview current customers to find out which sports they would like to add to Wii Sports. Second, Nintendo wants to survey a larger group of people. The company will present this group with a list of various sports, and people can select their three favorite sports.
Nintendo is struggling with several questions:
What is the population of interest? In other words, who will potentially buy the new Wii Sports? Are they current customers, does Nintendo want to attract new customers who own a Wii but do not play Wii Sports, or is the company also targeting potential new customers who do not yet own a Wii?
How will Nintendo select the respondents for its interviews and survey? Will the company just interview familiar customers, and will they randomly select people from their population of interest for the surveys? Or will Nintendo systematically select respondents by defining exactly how many respondents it needs in different age groups, split by gender and income?
How big should the sample size be for the interviews and the survey?
Assignment
Nintendo wants to introduce a new version of its most popular game Wii Sports on its Wii video game console. Thus far, it has sold almost one hundred million games of this game. Nintendo would like to determine which sports to include in the new version. In the original game, Nintendo included five different sports: baseball, bowling, boxing, golf, and tennis. The company wants to add at least three additional sports to the new version of the game that were not included in other extensions of its Wii Sports game.
But which three sports should be added? Nintendo has some ideas, but wants to do some market research before proceeding. First, Nintendo plans to interview current customers to find out which sports they would like to add to Wii Sports. Second, Nintendo wants to survey a larger group of people. The company will present this group with a list of various sports, and people can select their three favorite sports.
Can you make an educated guess about an appropriate sample size for the survey that Nintendo wants to conduct?
Approach your problem by going through the following steps:
Determine Z, the acceptable level of confidence.
Determine E, the acceptable amount of sampling error.
Determine σ, the population standard deviation.
Compute the sample size N.
Report your outcomes and the arguments of why you choose certain values in your discussion.
Note that as a marketing researcher, you sometimes get a lot of input from the client that you can use for your choices in Steps 1–3 above, but other clients may not provide this input and rely on your expertise as a marketing researcher. The Nintendo example is an example of a broad problem and Nintendo provides very little information that you can use. So you need to be creative! Find out what other studies use for the values of Z, E, and σ above. Provide the arguments for your choices.
Hint: This assignment is quite challenging. Nintendo is not asking one question, but instead it asks respondents to provide their three favorite sports from a larger list of potential sports. Nintendo’s ultimate goal is to know, with. a certain degree of certainty. which are the three most preferred sports. Think carefully about how you could measure the level of confidence and the population standard deviation here. There is not one correct answer.
