Was the research well designed? Was it a good research?
This case study detailed stages of research conducted by Starbucks, Bank One and Visa on the Duetto Card and overall the researches in all stages are well designed and are good examples of research. Firstly, the purposes of research, from understanding the perception of dual-function card concept, understanding user preference and finally to satisfactory level examination, are clearly defined. Secondly, the researches processes are detailed such as the steps to acquire participants, sampling method and the representativeness. Other researchers for card loyalty program can repeat similar research accordingly. Research design is thoroughly planned. For example, at the concept testing period, the feedbacks gathered from focus groups of existing customers is more relevant than asking the general public. Another good example is Bank One directly use observable business metrics to provide the return on marketing investment. Moreover, ethical standard is addressed during the research period. The intercept study outside the Starbucks store is discarded since they think they don’t own that space. Knowing the limitations of feedbacks, in the product optimization study, Bank One has compared the research results to norms that have resulted from more than 200 similar concept studies. On the other hand, for the quantitative online survey, the sample size should have been larger in order to give more reliable results. All three parties involved have internal research operations, and after all, the findings and conclusions drawn are justified with the overwhelming success of the Duetto Card.

What type of Research?
This Starbucks case was using research methods including an exploratory and longitudinal descriptive mode of research to achieve the purposes of the research. Besides, the researcher was adopting an inductive