Marketing research and analytics

Marketing research

the act of collecting, interpreting, and reporting information concerning a clearly
defined marketing problem

what are considered “snapshots”

Customers’ needs and desires

what are considered “gaps”

Marketing opportunities for products

what are considered “moving pictures”

Changing attitudes and purchase patterns of customers

T or F: Marketing research has become less important, and much easier, as markets continue to become globalized and product life cycles become shorter

F

Difference between qualitative and quantitative methods

Qualitative research is much less structured than quantitative methods

Exploratory Research

Conducted to gather more information about a problem or to make a tentative
hypothesis more specific. (Do we understand the problem?)

Customer advisory boards

Small groups of actual customers who serve as sounding boards for
new-product ideas and offer insights into their feelings and attitudes toward a firm’s products and
other elements of its marketing strategy

Descriptive research

Conducted for situations when specifics of a marketer are not well defined (who what when where how) and marketers need greater clarity and insights

T or F: Descriptive Research is Often a mix of qualitative and quantitative research

T

The main descriptive research tools are ________________.

focus groups and surveys

T or F: Descriptive research is Often considered qualitative research.

F: It’s Often a mix of qualitative and quantitative.

Causal (or Conclusive) Research

Designed to verify insights through objective procedures
and to help marketers in making decisions

The relationship between exploratory and conclusive types of research (how one informs and leads
to the other)

• Exploratory research comes first. It helps you understand the problem, discover ideas, and figure out what questions you should ask.

• The findings from exploratory research help you design the conclusive research.

• Conclusive research comes after. It uses more structured methods to test ideas, measure results, and make a final decision.

How exploratory research can be misused or misinterpreted (especially when companies take the
results of an exploratory study and consider them conclusive)

when a company treats the results as if they prove something for the entire target market.

Experimental research

Research that allows
marketers to make causal inferences about relationships
between variables, Provides strong evidence of cause and effect

In order to establish causation, you need which
of these elements:

All of these.

how does experimental research determine the cause of something

this research isolates the hypothesized causes and comparing the controlled results

Which of the following correctly lists the five steps of the marketing research process?

Define the problem, develop a research plan, collect data, analyze the data, and report findings and take action

Hypothesis

An informed guess or assumption about a certain problem or a certain set of circumstances

Reliability

A condition that exists when a research technique produces almost identical results in repeated trials

Validity

A condition that exists when a research method measures what it is supposed to measure

The differences between “reliability” and “validity”

reliability being a consistent result from
repeated trials, validity being confidence that you are measuring the right thing (e.g. measuring high
levels of customer satisfaction when actual customer repurchase rates are low)

Secondary data

data that has been collected for purposes other than answering the firm’s particular
research question

The limitations of secondary data

Much less expensive than primary data, but may not shed light on the specifics of a firm’s particular problem or question

What secondary sources are most popular for marketers

the US Census

Primary data

data that is collected specifically for the research problem at hand

Primary data limitations

Requires far more time and money than secondary data, but may result in a deeper understanding of consumers and the market

To gather primary survey data researchers use:

Sampling Procedures, Survey Methods, Observation

Population

All the elements, units, or individuals of interest to researchers for a specific study

Sample

A limited number of units chosen to represent the characteristics of a total population

Sampling

The process of selecting representative units from a total population

Probability sampling

ensures that every person in the target population has a
chance of being selected, and the probability of each person being selected is
known

Simple random sampling

everyone in the target population has an equal chance of
being selected

Nonprobability sampling

does not attempt to ensure that every member of the
target population has a chance of being selected

Quota sampling

firm chooses a certain number of participants based on selection
criteria such as demographics

Snowball sampling

firm selects participants based on the referral of other
participants who know they have some knowledge of the subject in question

The differences between probability and nonprobability sampling

🎲 Probability = random chance
👥 Nonprobability = not random

the implications for making
sense of the ultimate results of probability and non probability sampling

Probability → more representative → easier to generalize
Nonprobability → less representative → harder to generalize

What the Drake University (D+) example demonstrated about the importance of defining the
problem, sampling, considering all relevant audiences, and asking the right questions for the
marketing problem at hand

If you define the wrong problem, survey the wrong people, leave out important audiences, or ask the wrong questions → your research results may be misleading and lead to a bad decision.