Assignment 1: Applications of the Scientific Method The scientific method is useful in problem solving and decision-making in a wide variety of fields. In this assignment, you will demonstrate how to use the scientific method to make decisions and solve problems in your field of study or everyday life. Identify a specific problem often faced in your field of study or everyday life. Research your problem and assess your data / research. Examples of such problems could be: Business Developing a new product that is superior to competitor’s brands; or Establishing a price for a new product using the law of supply and demand; Information Systems and Technology The use of personal electronic devices for work purpose, or Determining in the most cost-effective computer for your business; Criminal Justice The reliability of eyewitness testimony, or Determining what evidence reveals to you about a crime; Everyday Life Selecting a particular brand of detergent, or Determining the most cost-efficient transportation / route for your commute. Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you: Explain the scientific method and describe the overall manner in which you would apply it in your field of study or everyday life. Propose one (1) testable hypothesis to explain / solve the problem you have selected. State the expected outcomes of your actions and include criteria for determining whether or not these actions would succeed. Note: Your hypothesis should be stated very precisely. Describe the main actions that you intend to put into place to test the hypothesis that you proposed in Question 2. Describe the way in which you would evaluate the success of your program. Include the results that you would deem as a success and the results that would be considered a failure. Discuss the wisdom behind the strategy you would use to test the hypothesis from Question 3, and describe the additional steps you might take, depending on the results of your test. Note: These additional steps might be to revise your original hypothesis (if the results were unsatisfactory) or to propose new hypotheses. The goal is to continuously improve your understanding of the factors influencing your outcomes, to be able to achieve greater results over time.  Use at least two (2) quality resources / references in this assignment. Note: Wikipedia and personal blogs do not qualify as quality resources. Your report must follow these formatting requirements: · Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size 12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your professor for any additional instructions. · Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in the required assignment page length. Executive Summary: Situation Paragraph Problem / Opportunity Para ...

1. Assignment 1: Applications of the Scientific Method
The scientific method is useful in problem solving and decision-
making in a wide variety of fields. In this assignment, you will
demonstrate how to use the scientific method to make decisions
and solve problems in your field of study or everyday life.
Identify a specific problem often faced in your field of study or
everyday life. Research your problem and assess your data /
research. Examples of such problems could be:
Business
Developing a new product that is superior to competitor’s
brands; or
Establishing a price for a new product using the law of supply
and demand;
Information Systems and Technology
The use of personal electronic devices for work purpose, or
Determining in the most cost-effective computer for your
business;
Criminal Justice
The reliability of eyewitness testimony, or
Determining what evidence reveals to you about a crime;
Everyday Life
Selecting a particular brand of detergent, or
Determining the most cost-efficient transportation / route for
your commute.
Write a three to five (3-5) page paper in which you:
Explain the scientific method and describe the overall manner in
which you would apply it in your field of study or everyday life.
Propose one (1) testable hypothesis to explain / solve the

2. problem you have selected. State the expected outcomes of your
actions and include criteria for determining whether or not these
actions would succeed. Note: Your hypothesis should be stated
very precisely.
Describe the main actions that you intend to put into place to
test the hypothesis that you proposed in Question 2. Describe
the way in which you would evaluate the success of your
program. Include the results that you would deem as a success
and the results that would be considered a failure.
Discuss the wisdom behind the strategy you would use to test
the hypothesis from Question 3, and describe the additional
steps you might take, depending on the results of your
test. Note: These additional steps might be to revise your
original hypothesis (if the results were unsatisfactory) or to
propose new hypotheses. The goal is to continuously improve
your understanding of the factors influencing your outcomes, to
be able to achieve greater results over time.
Use at least two (2) quality resources / references in this
assignment. Note: Wikipedia and personal blogs do not qualify
as quality resources.
Your report must follow these formatting requirements:
· Be typed, double spaced, using Times New Roman font (size
12), with one-inch margins on all sides; citations and references
must follow APA or school-specific format. Check with your
professor for any additional instructions.
· Include a cover page containing the title of the assignment, the
student’s name, the professor’s name, the course title, and the
date. The cover page and the reference page are not included in
the required assignment page length.

3. Executive Summary:
Situation Paragraph
Problem / Opportunity Paragraph
SWOT Paragraph
Alternative Choice Paragraph
Implementation Overview
Conclusion paragraph with transition statement to the body of
the paragraph.
Notes:
Case:
Step 1: Choose a soft drink company that you would like to
work at in the role of Marketing Director. It helps to choose a
large company like Coca Cola or Pepsi since those companies
have publically available information.
Step 2: Review the company’s web site, Twitter and YouTube
Channels.
Step 3: Review the Me Me Me Generation Article
Step 4: Brain Storm as to what you think will be the problems
and opportunities to marketing to this generation. Identify what
the current branding of the company is and is it consistent with
marketing to this generation? What products do you think this
generation will want in the future? Where will this generation
go for information? What advertising messages will they listen
to and act upon?
Step 5: Begin Writing the Case in the format provided.
Case:
You have recently been hired at soft drink Company as the
Director of Marketing. The CEO and Board of the company
have been concerned regarding marketing to the Millenials and
beyond. The company is looking to overhaul their marketing

4. plans. Your CEO has given you an initiative to prepare a
marketing plan and strategy out to the year 2020. This is so
important to the company that you have not been given any
budget restrictions. However, your CEO has indicated that you
will need to justify your plan and identify the resources
necessary to launch it.
Page | 1
Case and Marketing Plan
Zipcar: “It’s Not about Cars-It’s about Urban Life”
Marketing - An Introduction, Twelfth Edition
By: Gary Armstrong & Philip Kotler
BUAD 3010 - Principles of Marketing
A Good Student
June 28, 2015
Table of Contents
Cover Page
……………………………………………………………………1
Table of Contents
……………………………………………………………………2
Executive Summary
…………………………………………………………………..3,4
Background
…………………………………………………………………..4,5
Situation Analysis

5. ……………………………………………………………………6
Problem/Opportunity
…………………………………………………………………..6,7
Alternative
Solution
s
…………………………………………………………………8-10
Marketing Plan
………………………………………………………………..10-14
Controls
…………………………………………………………………....14
Conclusion
……………………………………………………………………15
Sources
……………………………………………………………………15
Executive Summary

6. Zipcar isn’t about it’s many vehicles it owns, it’s about
providing an easy and cheap type of transportation for the urban
lifestyle. This company is fairly young but has made a huge
impact when it comes to people living in bigger cities. By
providing a rental car service to its members that is cheaper
then other types of transportation and being very convient,
Zipcar has grown it’s company to other countries across the
world and doesn’t plan on slowing down anytime soon. There
have been issues with the company not taking care of the
vehicles it owns and other little problems that have been
reported, but with a correct marketing strategy to implement
Emergency Zipcars for members to have as a back-up plan, they
can eliminate some of the complaints, cut back on unnecessary
costs, and attract new customers. The strengths of the
Emergency Zipcar are that it is a very reliable back-up plan for
members to use in case their original car has issues, not enough
fuel, or even if it isn’t available for them to use in time. This
also prevents the company for imbursing members to use
another type of transportation which can cut back on additional
costs. By having this secondary option, this can attract new
members that were skeptical about becoming a member and
reassuring them this is the best type of transportation around a
city. The weaknesses of the Emergency Zipcars are that they
will require a lot of attention which means that there will be a

7. lot of costs at first. The costs of the additional vehicles,
manhours, and purchasing of parking spaces will add up in the
beginning. The opportunities, however, are that the company
can really show the rest of the community that they are making
sure this is the best way to go when it comes to transportation.
If you know you can rely on Zipcar to get you where you are
going and you can do it cheaper than other types of
transportation, then more people will want to be apart of the
Zipcar community or in other words, become a “Zipster”. The
threats that come with all of this is that there could be a limit of
how many available spaces there are in the city for Zipcar to
purchase for their Emergency Zipcars. If Zipcar cannot purchase
enough parking spaces around the city to station these
Emergency Zipcars, then this secondary option will be very
limited for people to use. However, with the correct research
and marketing team, this plan can really help promote Zipcar as
a whole company and make more people want to become
members of Zipcar. The more people that join as members, the
more it will show that Zipcar is the new way to go for the urban
lifestyle.
Background/History
Zipcar was founded in January 2000 in Cambridge,
Massachusetts by Antje Danielson and Robin Chase. The
purpose of Zipcar is to provide an automobile service to its

8. members by having a car available at their request. The CEO of
the company, Scott Griffith, has grown the company to reach
across the world. Zipcar is now available for people to use in
the very populated cities such as New York City, Atlanta,
Boston, San Francisco, Washington D.C., and London. The idea
behind it is to limit the amount of cars on the roads for people
that live the urban life but also make it cheaper for people to
travel so that they do not have to worry about the expenceses
from owning a vehicle. Zipcar is not for everyone to use, just
for the people that know they will need transportation and do
not want to spend a lot of money for it.
Studies have shown that people that use Zipcar can eliminate 20
cars from being on the road and can cut carbon emissions by up
to 50 percent (Armstrong, pg. 535). This shows that the
company knows that they can help the environment as well as
the people in the cities. Figure 1 (Maxfield 2011) shows how
much it costs for people to own a car on an annual perspective.
In order to become a Zipcar member, a $60 annual fee is
required along with paying $7.50 an hour for when you want to
use a Zipcar. The benefit for all of this is that insurance, gas,
and milage is all included in those payments. Research shows
that people that use Zipcar save approximately $600 a month
(Armstrong, pg. 536). The way Zipcar works is that they
provide a little remote to every member that they can scan over

9. the windshield of the car to unlock their car. To reserve a car,
you can either go online, call ahead, or even use the application
on your phone to pick a car you want, when you want it, and
where you would like it. Then, the meter will start running for
the usage of the car and will stop when you return the car from
where you picked it up. The idea behind this is that the
company wants to make it as convenient as possible so that
people do not have to walk that far to access their vehicle.
Some companies recommend using Zipcar in bigger cities which
has helped Zipcar the past few years. As Zipcar continues to get
bigger, the more locations they start to establish along with the
amount of cars they have continues to grow. This has started to
affect some of the other rental car companies such as Hertz,
Enterprise, Thrifty, etc. Recently, Zipcar has become profitable
as the past five years their revenues have reached $270 million
(Armstrong, pg. 536). It’s safe to say that Zipcar has made a
name of itself and plans on coming up with more ideas to help
the people with the urban lifestyle.
Situation Analysis
As of right now, Zipcar has been trying to grow their company
and make any improvements that they need to along the way.
Zipcar has been trying to go from a Web-based company to a

10. mobile concern since they are trying to focus on implementing
device holders in the cars for smartphones that will help with
navigation (Armstrong, pg. 536). This will also allow for
members to play their music in each car or give quick feed-back
on their vehicle and service so that Zipcar can make any
improvements that they need to as soon as possible (Armstrong,
pg. 536). As stated earlier, Zipcar has started to become
profitable so their revenues are increasing, however Zipcar
needs to make sure they are keeping their members happy with
the product and services they are offering. It is important to
make sure that the quality is still acceptable along with
increasing the quantity of the units. If Zipcar has a lot of units
available for people to use, it will not do them any good if
people are not satisfied with how the cars are maintained. This
issue can be common when a company starts to grow. If it goes
over-looked, then the customers will lose interest and find
another source of transportation.
Problem/Opportunity
Zipcar does a good job making it seem like their company has
hit all the important areas when it comes to services and
customer satisfaction. However, further research shows that
Zipcar has many flaws just like every other company. At the end
of the day, no matter how responsive the company can be,
Zipcar still has rental cars. When people do not own a car, they

11. do not care as much about the car so it is common to see
damage done to these Zipcars along with trash, odor, and more
important issues like turn signals not working, lack of
windshield wiper fluid, and headlights out. These issues are
becoming more annoying with people that like to use Zipcars
for their daily activities. Along with people trying to perform
their daily activities and functions, there have been issues with
previous users not filling the gas tank up before they drop the
car back off. It is part of Zipcar’s policy that they must fill the
gas tank up if it gets to a quarter of a tank. However, some
people choose not to fill it up so that makes it so the next user
has to take the time to go fill up the tank. Along with filling the
cars up with fuel, it has been reported many times that the gas
cards that come with the membership have not worked at gas
stations which meant that people have had to use their personal
cards to pay for the fuel and then had Zipcar reimburse them for
the cost. The other problem that goes along the company is that
some previous users do not return the car exactly when it needs
to be returned, therefore it can make the next user late for
something. Not having the car available for members is a huge
problem when they are depending on the company to have their
car ready for them so that they can go on with their schedule for
the day. The other problem that is starting to become noticed is
that there is no communication between people who use the car
after the previous member to let them know that the vehicle

12. might need fuel. When members sign up for a time slot, they are
not including the time it would take to fuel the car up before
returning it. Therefore, some members might be charged with a
fine for not returning the vehicle at the exact time they said
they would.
Even though Zipcar can reimburse their members for another
type of transportation, this means that the company has
unnecessary expenses that they could have avoided. If you do
get the car late and you go over the time you stated you would
have the car back by, then a fine is applied to you when it
wasn’t even your fault. It is always nice to give feedback to the
company, but when these issues continue to happen and nothing
is getting done to fix this, then people from Zipcar need to start
thinking of solutions for these issues.
Alternative