How to choose a research topic
You will have to choose your own topic from an area of your interest. What needs to be mindful is that it should fulfil the relevant criteria that is: MA students should select a marketing related title.
You are free to choose your own topic but it has to be approved by your supervisor.
Key things to be mindful when developing a research topic
It’s important to ensure that the chosen topic really interests you. i.e. some topic which fascinates you and want to talk about. This is very important since you will have to spend lot of time in researching for literature and industry facts based on the area chosen.
It’s important to ensure that it’s not too broad as well. Specially, as you all are pressed for time, it needs to be something which can be managed within the given time frame as well as fits the scope of the module requirement too.
How to narrow the topic
The title of your proposed research must fulfil a number of set criteria.
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It must reflect the nature of your study. For example, if you intend studying a particularly firm’s sales performance, then something to this effect must be stressed in your proposed title.
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It must be concise. Ideally, try not to exceed more than 10-12 words.
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Try to avoid unnecessary terms such as ‘Case study approach’, company or product name, which will help you to reduce the word count. However it is important that you discuss them under the introduction section in order to demarcate the scope of the title.
Finally, try and keep your title clear and easy to understand. In other words, consider it from the layperson’s point of view.
How to make the title more specific:
Contextualizing helps you to do this. You could add more contexts to your title such as;
• The geographical context (geographic region or country)
• Time aspects
• Biological context
• Historical context
Formulation of research title
The purpose of a research is to find solutions to a research problem or trying to find a better way of doing something or revealing something worthwhile. It is imperative that whatever the title you will be choosing, to reflect upon this aspect.
The research title might be regarded as a working title. Ideally, it should mirror the content of the introduction closely. The title is particularly important as it will get people to stop and listen.
A good research title will have two key variables on which you are trying to identify whether there is a possible relationship. Therefore, it’s important to have well defined variables.
One variable will be the independent variable and the other variable will be the dependent variable.
Using these two variables you can assess the impact/relationship/link of a certain phenomenon.
When phrasing a title, it is good to use words such as “to assess, to examine, impact, investigate” etc.
As mentioned earlier, it’s important the title to be focused and specific. Therefore, adding more contexts to the title will make it more specific and focused. e.g. focusing on a specific industry and a specific company in particular.
If a company has many products or services, then it is good to focus on one product or service. If not, the implementation of research is difficult and the research findings will not be reliable or valid.
example:
The impact of advertising on customer purchasing decisions
Independent variable: Advertising
Dependent variable: Customer purchasing decision
You could also mention under the introduction section that it is a case study of Unilever UK- Flora Butter. This will support you contextualizing the title and be specific in terms of the topic.
Company: Unilever UK
Product- “Flora”
