Marketing Term Papers – Defining Your Topic
Are you struggling to write a term paper for your marketing class? Are you at a loss as to which topic you should pursue? Choosing and defining a specific, interesting term paper topic is an essential part of the writing process, and selecting the proper topic can make writing much easier overall. Below is a quick guide to defining a topic for marketing term papers.
Consider the Consumer Base
Before conducting research for you topic, consider the target demographic the product or service is intended for. This will greatly inform your research process and your write-up of results. Ask yourself: what age is the average user of this product or service? Is there a specific gender this product or service is geared toward primarily, and can this be changed through marketing techniques? What countries or cultures consume this product or service? Which groups of people are typically advertised to when this object is marketed?
Conduct Demographic Research
After forming some rough hypotheses about the consumer base for your marketing topic, back up your hunches with some demographic research. Consumer Reports is a great resource for looking up statistics on who purchases and uses a product or service. If you are more interested in how current advertisements market the product or service, look to a wide variety of sources, including the company website, magazines, television, and banner ads. Document the trends in as objective and numerical a manner as possible, and use academic search engines to find citations to support your findings.
Study Marketing Psychology
While marketing is itself a burgeoning and thriving academic field, a number of psychologists also research advertising methods and their efficacy. Consult a few social psychological and organizational psychology journals for information on product evaluation, persuasion, and advertisement effects. Armed with this information, you can write in detail about the psychological impact of the advertisements and marketing strategies you see in use on a regular basis.
Make Recommendations
Near the end of your marketing research paper, expand upon your topic by forming your own, research-supported recommendations for how advertising the product or service could be improved or expanded to new markets. If there is a disconnect between the groups that use the product and the groups that are advertised to, point this disparity out and make a suggestion that marketing is broadened or shifted in focus. If you believe a product could be marketed to a wider or alternative demographic, say so in your paper, and provide examples of how this shift could be accomplished in a formal marketing campaign.