mktg379 exam 1

marketing research

intelligence

marketing research improves a company’s understanding of:

• environment

• customers

• p/s

• competitors

• its Brands

marketing research insights are used for…

helping companies make more informed decisions for better business results

product research

evaluate & develop new products, test product names, package testing

components of product research

• concept testing

• product testing

• product name evaluation

• package testing

pricing research

• evaluating price elasticity

• testing price thresholds

• evaluating price to value compared to competition

distribution research

• selecting retail locations

• evaluating retailer’s impact on a brand’s perception

• shelf presence

promotion research

• advertising communication testing

• media spend & platform testing

• evaluating sales promotions effectiveness

• a lot of time, money, effort spent on advertising research

who does marketing research

• companies that produce/sell p/s → to gauge market need & produce accordingly

• ad agencies → to better understand consumer interest & behavior

• marketing research companies → standardized research, information collected & sold to clients, custom-designed research

• others → gov’t, trade associations, universities

typical research path

• internal data + internal experts

• free secondary data

• purchased secondary data

• exploratory research

• primary quantitative survey

price increases with time spent researching

problem definition

includes specifying the manager’s decision problem & one or more research problems to be addressed

when is exploratory research used

when the problem to be solved is broad/vague

• requires flexibility

• outcome is a clear understanding of what information managers need to make a decision

market research flowchart

management decision problem/oppty → marketing research problem → marketing research objectives

capturing existing data

needed data may already exist inside company’s databases

• using dss (decision support systems)

• find value within growing variety of “big data”

problem scope may require existing data from external sources

commercial sources of data

organizations that specialize in collecting & selling third party data

causal research

uses experiments to identify cause-&-effect relationships between variables

descriptive research

focuses on describing a population, often emphasizing the frequency or extent to which 2 variables are related to one another

steps of data analysis

• editing

• coding

• aggregation

• merging

editing data analysis

making sure data gathered are complete & consistent

coding data analysis

assigning numbers to answers for computer analysis

aggregation data analysis

assigning appropriate time units to gathered data

merging data analysis

assembling data from different sources

information reporting

research results & conclusions are submitted to management in a written research report

• must clearly address the research problem & accurately present the data

ethics

the moral principles & values that govern the way an individual/group conducts its activities

marketing ethics

principles, values, standards of conduct followed by marketers

advocacy research

research conducted to support a position rather than to find the truth about an issue

sugging

attempting to sell products, services, or ideas under the guise of marketing research

“define the problem” or “problem formulation”

means a process of identifying specific areas where additional information is needed about the marketing environment

step one: meet with the client

establish trust & communication & to obtain information

• what is the problem/oppty you’re facing?

• what caused it & why do you think so?

• what will happen if nothing changes in next 12mos?

• what actions will you take depending on info from mktg research?

step 2: clarify problem/opportunity

formulating the true problem/oppty is often difficult unless you can break away from “normal” thinking & question assumptions

decision problem

problem facing the decision maker for which the research is intended to provide answers

a well stated decision problem:

• takes manager’s perspective

• simple as possible

• stated in the form of a question

step 3: state manager’s decision problem

• discovery-oriented decision problem

• strategy oriented decision problem

discovery-oriented decision problem

typically seeks to answer “what” or “why” questions about a problem/opportunity, with a focus on generating useful information

strategy-oriented decision problem

seeks to answer “how” questions about a problem/opportunity, with the focus on selecting alternative courses of action

step 4: develop possible research problems

research problem: statement of decision problem in research terms

actions to take to provide insight into the decision problem

• investigate current customer satisfaction

• assess target market perceptions

• determine target market awareness

step 5: select research problems to be addressed

• there will be many problems associated with a single manager’s decision problem

• researchers normally can’t do everything

• it is better to address 1-2 problems FULLY

trade-off

value of the information to be obtained vs the costs of obtaining it

research request agreement

document prepared by the researcher after meeting with the decision maker that summarizes the problem & information needed to address it

step 6: prepare research request agreement

purpose: make certain that everyone understands the problem to be addressed & what the research is to accomplish

what is included in a research request agreement

• background

• use

• decision problem

• research problems

• population & subgroups

• logistics

research proposal

written statement that describes the marketing problem, purpose of the study, detailed outline of the research methodology

define exploratory research

research conducted to gain ideas & insights to better define the problem/opportunity confronting a manager

what should exporatory resesrch do

• provide a better understanding of the situation

• possibly yield hypotheses to specify how 2+ measurable variables are related

uses of exploratory research

• develop hypotheses

• better formulate manager’s decision problem

• increase researcher’s familiarity with the problem

• clarify concepts

types of exploratory studies

• literature search

• depth interviews

• focus groups

• data mining

• case analyses

• projective methods

define literature search

search of statistics, trade journal articles, newspapers, books, online sources of data or insight into the problem at hand

point of literature search

discovery of ideas & tentative explanations of the phenomenon & not on drawing conclusions

define depth interviews

interviews with people knowledgeable about the general subject being studied

• those who work w it (employees, consultants)

• those who study it

• those who live it

define focus group

interview conducted among a small number of individuals simultaneously; interview relies on group discussion more than direct questions

characteristics of focus groups

• 8-12 people

• 1.5-2 hours

• homogeneous w/in group

• heterogeneity across groups

• screened participants

• sessions recorded & transcribed

advantage of focus groups

synergy from having multiple participants

define moderator

individual who meets with focus group & guides session

define discussion guide

moderator’s guide to direct conversation & ensure research objectives are being met

define projective methods

encourage respondents to reveal their own feelings, thoughts, behaviors by shifting focus away from individual through use of indirect tasks

types of projective methods

• word association

• sentence completion

• storytelling

• role playing

define ethnography

detailed observation of consumers during their ordinary lives using direct observations, interviews, video/audio recordings

market research process

formulate problem/question → determine sources of info & design research process → choose most appropriate data collection method → collect data → analyze & interpret data

objective of DSS

turn data into insights that lead to more customers

primary source

originating source of secondary data

secondary source

source of secondary data that did not originate the data but rather secured them from another source

customer relationship management

system that gathers all relevant information about a company’s customers & makes it available to the employees that interact with the customers

knowledge management

systematic collection of employee knowledge about customers, products/processes, & the marketplace

define big data

process of capturing, merging, analyzing large & varied data sets for the purpose of understanding the current business practices & seeking new opportunities to enhance future performance

big data - volume

amount of data collected

velocity - big data

pace of data flow, into & out of a firm

variety - big data

combination of structured/unstructured data collected in big data systems

veracity - big data

accuracy & trustworthiness of data collected in big data systems

define structured data

written into rows on a spreadsheet/database on standard column headings

define unstructured data

social media comments, blog posts, photos, video, audio, metaverse mentions, not easily arranged into structured format

define standardized marketing information (syndicated data)

secondary data collected by companies that sell data to multiple companies, allowing the cost of collecting, editing, coding, analyzing them to be shared

north american industry classification systems (NAICS)

segmentation base for organizing business information reporting

define diary panel

representative group of individuals or households tracks purchases & consumption over a time period

define scanner

electronic device that automatically reads the bar code imprinted on a product looks up the price in an attached computer, prints description & price of item on cash register receipt

single-source data

allows researchers to link together purchase behavior, household characteristics, advertising exposure at household level

exploratory research

conducted to gain ideas & insights to better define the problem/opportunity confronting a manager

descriptive research

major emphasis is on describing characteristics of a group or the extent to which variables are related

causal research

type of research in which the major emphasis is on determining cause & effect relationships

laboratory experiment

research investigation in which investigators create a situation with exact conditions in order to control some variables & manipulate others

field experiment

research study in a realistic situation in which 1+ independent variables are manipulated by the experimenter under as carefully controlled conditions as the situation will permit

internal validity

degree to which an outcome can be attributed to an experimental variable & not other factors

external validity

degree to which results of an experiment can be generalized, extended to other situations

A/B

field experiment where 2 versions of some marketing element are randomly assigned to subjects & then compared on outcomes of interest

market testing

controlled experiment done in a limited but carefully selected sector of the marketplace

cost

can include everything from hardware & software setup costs to costs associated with live testing

time

can be subsatntial & not always available in desired quantities

control

the most accurate test markets are those with high levels of external validity at the cost of experimental control

standard test market

company sells product through its normal distribution channels

controlled test market

entire test program conducted by an outside service in a market in which it can guarantee distribution

simulated test market

consumer ratings are obtained along with likely/actual purchase data obtained in a simulated store environment; data are fed into computer models to produce sales & market share predictions

descriptive research

major emphasis is on describing characteristics of a group or extent to which variables are related 5W1H

longitudinal study

investigation involving fixed sample of elements measured repeatedly over time

continuous panel

fixed sample of respondents who are measured repeatedly over time with respect to the same variables

discontinuous panel

fixed sample of respondents who are measured repeatedly over time but on variables that change from measurement to measurement

cross-sectional study

investigation involving sample of elements selected from the population of interest that are measured at a single point in time

sample survey

cross-sectional study in which the sample is selected to be representative of the target population & in which the emphasis is on the generation of summary statistics such as averages & percentages

personality

normal patterns of behavior exhibited by an individual’ the attributes, traits, mannerisms that distinguish one individual from another

lifestyle

how individuals live, what interests them,, their values, what they like → AKA psychographic analysis

attitude

individual’s overall evaluation of something