Marketing Research Project

Marketing Research

Project #1-Background and Problem/Secondary Research

Dr. Sarkees

Andrew Marston, Paul Blanco, Sean Knowles, Tim Watson, Hung Nguyen

Background and Problem 

As a university that prides itself on its student’s academic success, we want to research and understand the student population’s favorite places to study on campus and preferred study environment. The main reason why our group is concerned with study space is due to the limited areas in which the student body can study. For a campus of 10,983 total students, there are substantially fewer study spaces to choose from when compared to its competitors (Villanova). Villanova offers two libraries, a student center, scattered common areas, and free classrooms which cannot keep up with student demand. This is a problem because there are many times during the week when it is difficult to find an available study spot. It is especially hard during midterms and finals to find open areas to study on campus. From our research we hope to gain insight into how Villanova can optimize its study space to best suit the preferences of its student body through examination of the ideal study space.

General Environment

        Students do not prefer studying in their rooms, they prefer to go out and study in classrooms or the library (Hall and Kapa, 2015). The advantages of dorm-rooms are convenience, availability, and overall comfortability. The disadvantages of dorm room studying are distractions, and limited resources (Wignall, 2016) .

With so many different study areas at Villanova, the General Environment varies throughout. The library is the most popular study area as each floor caters to different student preferences. The 1st floor is for people who are comfortable with noise and enjoy talking with others while they study. The 2nd floor is similar but less noisy than the 1st Floor. The 3rd and 4th floors are for people who want silence whatsoever when they study. The problem arises when there is not enough study space in the library to meet the demand of students. Students tend to try and find rooms in other academic buildings such as Bartley, Driscoll, or Tolentine, but those rooms fill up quickly as well. Students then have to settle for spaces that may not be their preferred study area. The Falvey Library is a coveted study spot due to its reference materials, food area, and variability in volume throughout. Other areas around campus offer similar but also very different attributes for students. Some offer more control over the area, some offer more amenities, and some are just more comfortable.

Competition

Universities that compete directly with Villanova University could be the local competitors such as St. Joseph's University, Temple University, Drexel University, and University of Pennsylvania. On a national scale Villanova tends to compete with Boston College, University of Notre Dame, and Georgetown University. We look at these competitors to see how they meet the demands of student study space in different ways than Villanova. Boston College offers eight different library/student resource spaces around their campus (“Libraries.” Boston) compared to Villanova’s two (Law School Library, Falvey Memorial Library). Boston College only boasts an enrollment of 13,996 (How does Boston College), not much larger compared to Villanova’s enrollment of 10,983 (How does Villanova).