A large retail chain focusing on athletic shoes has noticed some recent slippage in same-store sales, in particular for stores located in suburban areas; sales in urban stores have increased slightly. Managers are concerned that the styles the stores offer may no longer be in fashion among some target groups. Because the chain manufactures its own line of shoes, styles must be chosen at least 10 to 12 months before they hit the stores to allow time for manufacturing. Managers have always assumed that athletic shoes are selected and purchased primarily for their functional attributes but are beginning to think that the more symbolic attributes like fashionable colors, signals of prestige or some other marker of communicating "hipness" may play a larger role than previously believed. Your research firm has been contracted to provide marketing research into these issues.
a. Assuming that you planned to conduct exploratory research, how might a literature search be employed?
b. Given this is a large retail chain, is there any value to conducting data mining of store sales histories? Does the decrease in suburban store sales compared to the increase in urban store sales impact your data mining decision?
c. Discuss two ways in which case analyses could be conducted to provide useful information.