MK726 Final Reflection Instruction

Please write a short essay (double-spaced in 5-8 pages) addressing the three questions below. The essay
should reflect the key concepts and data analysis strategies learned from the course.

1. Customer profiling
Green Chef Corporation commits to offering sustainable meal kits that minimize environmental impact
while creating a delicious home-cooked meal (https://www.greenchef.com/green-practices). Please
propose a data collection plan to profile Green Chef’s target customers. The proposed plan should address
heterogenous customer characteristics that correspond to the company’s commitment. Specifically, list
what types of customer information should be helpful and how to collect them.

2. Experimental design
The COVID-19 pandemic has hampered consumers’ psychological well-being and devastated businesses,
especially in the leisure travel industry. Research shows that nostalgia can counteract negative emotions
(Tilburg and Igou, 2013; Zhou et al., 2008) and improve psychological well-being (e.g., Cheung et al.,
2013; Routledge et al., 2011, 2012, 2013; Sedikides et al., 2016).
Please design a marketing message that embeds the concept of nostalgia and another factor that can
potentially moderate the effect of nostalgia to increase consumer desire for post-pandemic travel. Your
idea should be ORIGINAL. Specifically, please address the following aspects:
• What is the second factor that you think can moderate the effect of a nostalgic marketing
message? Briefly justify why.
• How to manipulate the two independent variables?
• How to measure the dependent variable?
• Briefly write the procedure of the study
[Reference the articles posted for “8_experimental design” for the write-up.]

3. Monitoring business performance
TJX is an off-price retailing corporation that includes retailers such as T.J. Maxx, Marshalls, Home
Goods, Home Sense, etc., headquartered in Framingham, Massachusetts. TJX Companies achieve annual
sales volume greater than Macy’s or J.C. Penney and Nordstrom combined. The reward program of TJX
helps cultivate not only customer-company relationships but also track consumers’ purchases and
reactions to marketing tactics.
Using the marketing-performance outcome chain (see Figure1 below), design a Key Performance Index
(KPI) system that includes six marketing metrics that monitor EACH STAGE of the value creation chain.
The goal is to help TJX accurately diagnose how marketing programs contribute to business success. For
each selected marketing metric, briefly explain why it is selected and how to collect data to measure it.
Delivery: a word or pdf document. You do NOT need to collect or analyze any data for this individual
report.
Notes: please cite when you reference any work.


Reference:
Cheung, W., T. Wildschut, C. Sedikides, E.G. Hepper, J. Arndt, and A.J. Vingerhoets. 2013. “Back to the
Future: Nostalgia Increases Optimism.” Personality and Social Psychology Bulletin 39: 1484-1496.
Routledge, C., J. Arndt, T. Wildschut, C. Sedikides, C.M. Hart, J. Juhl, A.J. Vingerhoets, and W. Schlotz.
2011. “The Past Makes the Present Meaningful: Nostalgia as an Existential Resource.” Journal of
Personality and Social Psychology 101(3): 638-652.
Routledge, C., T. Wildschut, C. Sedikides, and J. Juhl. 2013. “Nostalgia as a Resource for Psychological
Health and Well‐being.” Social and Personality Psychology Compass 7(11): 808-818.
Routledge, C., T. Wildschut, C. Sedikides, J. Juhl, and J. Arndt. 2012. “The Power of the Past: Nostalgia
as a Meaning-making Resource.” Memory 20(5): 452-460.
Sedikides, C., and T. Wildschut. 2016. “A Bittersweet Emotion that Confers Psychological Health
Benefits.” The Wiley Handbook of Positive Clinical Psychology: 125-136.