Despite the fact that the research results collected by Nielsen may be somewhat useful, they should not be trusted for any serious marketing initiative as they have serious factual flaws. Specifically, the manager of Nielsen mentioned that the participants of the project scanned all products they bought, and the research company automatically receives the data about their buying habits, allowable income and other characteristics, which may be useful in crafting effective marketing strategies (UNLV Online Education, 2014). The service advertised by them appears to be especially attractive because of global economic uncertainty. In particular, the companies from different industries are actively exploring the new methods of increasing their sales, and the research approach offered by Nielsen looks both promising and effective.
However, it should be noted that this approach has the following disadvantages, which seriously weaken its credibility:
Firstly, there is no data demonstrating that the classical marketing patterns are no longer effective. At the beginning of the presentation, the manager of Nielsen mentioned that classical approaches towards understanding and predicting behavior of the consumers were no longer effective. Yet, this allegation lacks any substantial empirical proofs. Naturally, a certain percentage of the United States population might have developed some deviances, yet there is no data confirming that the number of such people is significant enough to constitute a group, which may somehow affect the buying patterns of the main consumer categories.
Secondly, there is no mentioning of the method of statistical sampling used by Nielsen to compose the research. In other word, in order to be reliable a sampling should be either systematic, random, stratified, cluster, probability-proportional etc. However, in this case the authors of the video have not mentioned which method was used to choose the people, who will be scanning and sending their purchasing data to the company research units. There is no reliable proof that the company do not fabricate the data, or that the participants of the project were not somehow influenced by the company to make pre-determined buying decisions. Furthermore, it is highly possible that the company provides different kinds of incentives for those, who decide to join the project. In this case, it is quite reasonable to assume that the people, who possess special psychological characteristics, which urge them to take part in this dubious marketing initiative. Because this possibility is considerably high, speculating that these people do not provide accurate representative results is reasonable. To be more specific, even if the company has not manipulated with the data results, the people who agreed to participate in this experiment are most likely to belong to the similar demographical, income and social group. Therefore, the findings may be of from little to no practical value for a client.
Finally, the managers of Nielsen highlighted several times during the video that this strategic approach is completely reliable, safe and secure, as well as that thus survey is likely to be of great marketing value for the company clients (UNLV Online Education, 2014). Yet, it is important remembering that one of the key characteristics of a reliable investigation is self-declaration of the potential biases (Hammersley, 2013). Having failed to do so, the authors made the seriousness of their marketing approach comparatively doubtful.
In accordance with the data provided by the Patrick (PT) Gaming Company, the average employee turnover rate is 33-35%. The data provided by the Compensation Force think tank revealed that this percentage is much higher than in any other industry in the United States. For example, the average rate in hospitality industry (the closest figure) is 27.6% only, healthcare has 17.5% turnover rate and the average national economic figure is 15.7% only (for voluntary turnover – 11%) (Compensation Force, 2014). Even considering the fact that the managers of PT Gaming might have inadvertently exaggerated the data, the figures look significant, suggesting that unless the industry focuses on introducing modifications to the business cycles, working approaches and other relevant aspects of the working environment, and it may appear on the verge of the largest humanitarian crisis in the industry.
At the same time, it is worth mentioning that although these statistics were mentioned by the managers of PT gaming, it is highly possible that this data is the product of the company in-house research, and thus, that it fails to adequately represent the average industry scales. In other words, it is highly possible that the reasons of such high turnover are the results of inadequate human resources policies and working conditions of PT Gaming while that in other companies the turnover rates may be substantially lower. Therefore, deeper investigation of the matter is necessary in order to figure out whether high turnover rate is the industry-scale phenomenon, or it is merely the product of poor management and human resources policies of the PT Gaming.
As far as the most commonly accepted metrics to calculating employee turnover rates are concerned, there are several widely used practice in this regard. The most popular approach includes dividing the number of employees, who left the organization during the year on the amount of the number of employees, who joined the company at the beginning of the year and the number of employees at the end of the year divided by two (Morrell, Loan-Clarke & Wilkinson, 2001).
Although the research on gambling addiction provides several highly informative insights, several issues therein appear to be in need of additional clarification, and, possibly, additional research. Thus, the following issues sparked particular interest:
Firstly, it has been mentioned and emphasized in the research problem that the local gambling industry is experiencing a seriously problem because the service quality standards are dramatically declining. Yet, there is no indication demonstrating how significant the decline in quality care standards is. A good idea in this regard will be to calculate the difference in customer satisfaction index of deterioration. In other words, some qualitative or quantitative data should be provided to demonstrate that the problem is really present and is not just the product of the researchers’ imagination.
Secondly, it will be a good idea to provide more in-depth coverage of the research methods, which will be used in the future project, because there is only perfunctory mentioning of the research solutions. Yet, this section of a research paper is one of the most important ones, demonstrating whether the project is academically credible and practically justified.
Thirdly, in the project proposal, which evaluates employee engagement, providing more background data would have been justified. In particular, while the author emphasizes that employee engagement correlates with the managerial approaches, the introduction lacks specific arguments in this regard. Thus, before the research is advanced further, it is advisable to mention what management strategies supposedly contribute to enhancement or deterioration in the employees’ performance and productivity.
Finally, it is mentioned that when the employees’ disagreement or approval of the management policies are among the causes of continuous improvement process. Yet, there are no scholarly references confirming these statements. Inserting brief literature findings into this section appears to be relevant.
References
Compensation Force. (2014). 2014 Turnover Rates by Industry. Web. Retrieved from http://www.compensationforce.com/2015/03/2014-turnover-rates-by-industry.html
Hammersley, M. (2013) What is qualitative research?, London, Bloomsbury.
Morrell, K. Loan-Clarke J., &Wilkinson A. (2001) Unweaving leaving: The use of models in the management of employee turnover. International Journal of Management Reviews 3(3), 219-244
UNLV Online Education. (2014). Nielsen Media Research plays the rating games. Web. Retrieved from http://scs.vo.llnwd.net/o41/unlv/videoPlayer.html?url=BRM8e/BRM_Disk2_Nielsen_Media.mp4
