George’s main interest was football. When he fin- ished university he wanted to work in marketing, preferably for a sports goods manufacturer. He had examined his own strengths and discovered that his best marks were in marketing. He wanted to do his research project on some aspect of marketing, prefer- ably linked to football, but had no real research idea. He asked three friends, all taking business studies degrees, to help him brainstorm the problem.
George began by explaining the problem in some detail. At first the suggestions emerged slowly. He
noted them down on the whiteboard. Soon the board was covered with suggestions. George counted these and discovered there were over 100.
Reviewing individual suggestions produced noth- ing that any of the group felt to be of sufficient merit for a research project. However, one of George’s friends pointed out that combining the suggestions of Premier League football, television rights and spon- sorship might provide an idea which satisfied the assessment requirements of the project.
They discussed the suggestion further, and George noted the research idea as ‘something about how confining the rights to show live Premiership football to paid-for satellite TV channels would impact upon the sale of Premiership club-specific merchandise’.
George arranged to see his project tutor to discuss how to refine the idea they had just generated.