Case Study: NG Electronics Corporation The NG Electronics Corporation is a $250- million manufacturer of various electronic components, headquartered in Seoul, Korea. The firm had embarked on a long-term program of research and development with two university professors and had finally perfected a new high-speed, high-efficiency motor. Upon testing this small electric motor, NG discovered that it was far more efficient than competitors’. The firm wished to move ahead quickly and turned to Lonny Cho, the director of marketing, to determine whether or not they should commit to building a new production facility. The bulk of NG’s sales were to large OEMs, with the rest (about 25 percent) sold to small manufacturers and distributors. Lonny thought about the problem and realized that the firm could easily determine the acceptability of the new product with the larger OEMs. But the hundreds of other potential customers around the world presented a different picture. No one on Lonny’s staff, including him, had any experience with market research. And since there was no budget for this they decided to move ahead on their own. After some thought, Lonny determined that the key questions were: 1 How many units would a particular customer wish to buy? 2 How big was each customer segment? 3 What were the customer segments? 4 Who at each firm made the buying decisions for these motors? 5 What were the most popular sizes? 6 From whom did they usually buy? 7 How did they learn about new products? Lonny knew enough to perform some secondary data work on his office computer and determined that the key end-use market segments for this product were: ¦ pumps; ¦ industrial sewing machines; ¦ aircraft auxiliary equipment; ¦ fluid meters. Lonny thought about the sample. Since NG already sold to two of the end-use segments, he had customer lists of the larger OEMs, but he would have to source lists of the smaller ones and the distributors. Because there was no budget, Cho selected a few of his junior employees who spoke English very well to conduct telephone interviews. He then developed a questionnaire (which is included as Exhibit 5.1). In addition to developing the survey and starting his employees on the project, Cho also thought about the possibility of calling an outside market research firm to handle the work. ?CASE STUDY QUESTIONS 1 What is your overall assessment of Lonny Cho’s approach to his information needs? 2 Will the questionnaire Cho designed elicit the information he is seeking? 3 What modifications would you make on this questionnaire a. if it were used as an Internet or mail survey b. to be used as a telephone survey 4 If you were Lonny Cho would you prefer to use your own employees or attempt to get a budget to hire a market research firm? a. Why would you? b. How could you justify the use of an outside firm?