Know-How Exchange : Student Questions

What any of us think of the proposal is meaningless. What do YOU think of it and how can you make the piece you write better, stronger, bolder, more vibrant, and more valuable?

Ruby -- Is your proposal intended to pitch a research job?

If so, then there are some structural points in the example that you can use.

The content of the proposal you found is largely academic and I would say from a quick read that the author has studied the banking industry a bit, but does not actually know it first-hand. If I were a bank, that would be a weakness and I would prefer a proposal from an organization with a deeper understanding of my business.

Also, I'm wary of research proposals that predict the outcome before the research is done. Yes, it is obvious that the economy has shifted but no, it is not obvious what consumers believe and feel. In fact, beliefs and feelings are often hidden and it takes skilled research to uncover them. "Customer loyalty" is not a tangible entity or a corporate entitlement, or even something consumers think about in the way that businesses do. Customer loyalty is a behavior, and behaviors change, not always for the spoken reason.

Again, if I were a bank, I would hope for more insight into consumer behavior than that which can be provided by check-boxes. The absence of open-ended questions makes this survey a simple tally, but doesn't really provide any understanding about why a customer believes or behaves as he/she does. Without understanding a customer's motivation, how can a bank plan to sustain or improve loyalty behavior?

Loyalty to a brand is often an emotionally-driven factor, and always secondary to loyalty to oneself. It's like dating -- that is, it looks like a partnership until something more persuasive and appealing comes along ... then it becomes a separation. Your job with loyalty research is to find out what are the factors of persuasion and appeal to which your target customers respond. A good proposal will identify those factors, explain how they will be discovered and measured, and show the bank how your analysis of the responses (whatever they may be) will be beneficial to bank planning and income, by providing sound, reliable direction to its decision-makers and marketing team.

Hope these thoughts are helpful to you.