MKT 340 Exam 1

4 P’s of the Marketing Mix

product

price

promotion

place

4 P’s- Product

Decisions:

• New product development (NPD) and introduction

• Concept and product testing

• Branding

• Positioning products

Perceptual Mapping

• Used to show the relative position of products on two or more product dimensions important to consumer purchase decisions

• Used for NPD, product, introduction, branding, and positioning of products

Creating a Perceptual Map

Gather data by creating a possible unique product pairs

Overall similarity perceptions, not specific attributes

4 P’s- Price

Decisions:

• Pricing new products

• Establishing price levels in test marketing

• Modifying prices for existing products

• Variable pricing

• Elasticity of demand

Elastic Demand

Change in price leads to bigger percentage change in demand

4 P’s- Promotion

Most common research tasks in integrated marketing communications

• Attitudinal research

• Effectiveness studies

• Media planning

• Sales tracking

4 P’s- Place

Decisions:

Choosing and evaluating:

• Channels

• Distribution Partners

• Locations

Retailers

Conduct the following research:

• Trade area analysis

  • Characteristics of store patronage

  • Developing and exploiting demographic profiles

  • Performing competitive analysis

• Store image/perceptions

• In store traffic patterns

  • Eye tracking at POP

  • Heat maps

• Location analysis

Shopper Marketing

challenges the assumption that a consumer and a shopper are the same role

Consumers

Focus on how, when, where, and why consumers use/consume the category

Outside physical place

Shoppers

Focus on how, when, where, why consumers shop/by the category

Inside retail space

Behavioral Targeting is based on…

• gender

• age

• real time and past onsite behavior

• post purchases and searches

Behavioral Targeting delivers targeted messages using…

• Pop up/notification manager

• embedded in social media feed

• personalized banners

• emails

Types of Marketing Research Firms

• Internal

• External

  • Customized

  • Standardized

Internal Marketing Research Firm

Firm has their own research department

External Marketing Research Firm

Firm hires another firm to conduct research

External MR Firm: Customized

Provide tailored services for clients:

• Data is collected after taking on client

• New studies are developed for each client

• Specialty: specializes in one particular area of marketing research

External MR Firm: Standardized

Collect general data, continuously, following a standard format

• Data collected prior to taking on client

• Previously collected data is package for each clients particular needs

Ethical issues mostly found in

1) Information providers (MR orgs)

2) Respondents (study participants)

Unethical Activities of the Research Org

• Abuse of Client

• Abuse of Respondents

Unethical Activities of the Research Org: Abuse of Client

• Failure to maintain client confidentiality

• Selling branded “black box” methodologies

  • Does not provide information on operations

  • Can lend it self to curbstoning -personnel, filing out surveys for fake respondents

  • Unethical pricing

Unethical Activities of the Research Org: Abuse of Respondents

• Failure to provide incentive

• Lying about duration

• Fake sponsors

• Failure to engage in subject, debriefing- fully explaining to respondents any deception that was used during research

• Sugging/Frugging

• De-anonymizing data

Sugging/Frugging

Claiming that a survey is for research purposes, and then asking for a sale or donation

De-anonymizing data

Combining different publicly, available information to determine consumers’ identities

Unethical Activities by the Study Participant

• Providing dishonest answers

• Faking behavior or information for personal gain

4 Developments in Marketing Research

1. Firms’ widespread expansion into global markets

   • Technology and growth of global business are increasing the complexity of marketing research

2. Growing emphasis on secondary data

3. Unique data collection

4. Increased use of gatekeeper technologies and other measures as a means of protecting one's privacy against intrusive marketing practices is making it difficult for market to collect consumer data

   • Gatekeeper tech: Caller ID, Spam filters, cookies

   • Other measures: Opt-in/opt-out legislation, No call list

Established Unique Data Collection

• test markets

• focus groups

• mail

• Computer, aided telephone interviewing

• Mall intercept

• Mystery shopping

Newish Unique Data Collection

• Transactional/CRM data

• Social media

• neuromarketing

• chatbots

• clickstream tracking

Information Research Process

Systematic approach to collecting, analyzing, interpreting, and transforming data into decision-making information; guided by the scientific method

Data

Fax collected together for reference or analysis

knowledge

Awareness or understanding, gained by experience of effect or situation

When does data become knowledge?

when data is interpreted in a way that attaches meaning to it

Phases of the Information Research Process

Phase 1: determine the research problem

Phase 2: select the appropriate research design

Phase 3: execute the research design

Phase 4: communicate the research results

Phase 1: determine the research problem

1. Identify and clarify, research needs

2. Define the research questions

3. Specify, research objectives, and confirm information value

Phase 2: select the appropriate research design

4. Determine research, design, and data sources

5. Develop the sampling size and design

6. Examine measurement, issues, and scales

7. Design and pre-test the questionnaire

Phase 3: execute the research design

8. Collect and prepare data

9. Analyze data

10. Interpret data to create knowledge

Phase 4: communicate the research results

11. Prepare and present final reports

Iceberg Principle

Decision makers are aware of only 10% of the true problem

Situation Analysis

Gathers and synthesizers background information to familiarize the researcher with the overall complexity of the problem

• Look through internal and external secondary data

Unit of Analysis

Individuals, households, companies, departments, geographical areas, or some combination

Explorative Research

Helps defined the problem, or improve the understanding of consumer motivations, attitudes, and behavior that are not easy to access using other research methods

Descriptive Research

Collects quantitive data to answer questions such as who, what, when, where, and how

Casual Research

Text data that enables decision makers to determine cause and effect relationships between two or more variables; makes “if…then” statements

Target Population

Population from which the researcher wants to collect data

Census

Researcher attempts to question or observe all the members of a defined target population

Sample

Small number of members of a target population from which the researcher collects data

• Sampling Method

• Sample Size

Secondary Data

Data not gathered for the immediate study at hand, but for some other purpose, at another time, a.k.a. desk research

Used to examine marketing problems because of relative speed and cost-effectiveness of obtaining the data

Internal Secondary Data + Sources

Data collected by the individual company for accounting purposes, or marketing activity reports

• Accounts receivable reports

• Quarterly or annual sales reports

• Sales activity reports

• Customer letters/comment cards

• Sales invoices

• Employee exit interviews

• Post marketing, research studies

External Secondary Data + Sources

Data collected by outside agencies, such as the federal government, trade, associations, or periodicals

• Popular press sources (Wall Street Journal)

• Government sources

• Scholarly sources

• Social media sites

• Commercial sources

6 Criteria used to Evaluate Secondary Data Sources

1. Purpose: how it relates to current research

2. Accuracy: what was actually measured?

3. Consistency: from one source to another

4. Credibility

5. Methodology: only as good as methodology used to gather data

6. Bias: hidden motive, if any, of company that collected the secondary data

Literature Review

Can't help conceptualize a conceptual model that summarizes the relationships you hoped to predict

Involves:

• Identifying the factors (variables/constructs) important in your research

• Specifying, hypotheses, and relationships

• Repairing a diagram (conceptual model) that visually represents the relationships you will study

Elements of a Conceptual Model

• Variable(Boxes): observable item that is used as a measure on a questionnaire. Ex. Age, occupation, income

• Construct(Boxes): unobservable concept that is measured by a group of related variables

  • Several dimensions so cannot measure it with one item. Ex. Service quality, loyalty

• Relationships(Arrows): associations between two or more variables

  • Independent Variable (IV): variable or construct that predicts, or explains the outcome variable of interest. PREDICTOR VARIABLE; X

  • Dependent Variable (DV): the variable or construct researchers are seeking to explain. OUTCOME VARIABLE; Y

Hypotheses

Empirically testable through yet unproven statement developed in order to explain phenomena

2 Types:

• Descriptive

• Causal

Descriptive Hypotheses

predict correlational relationships

• no direction

• no order of occurrence

• other variables possibly influence

Causal Hypotheses

Predict a cause-and-effect relationship between IV and DV

• X and Y must be correlated

• Must be directional

• X must proceed Y

• No other variable influence

Positive Relationship between Variables

Association between two variables, in which they increase or decrease together

Negative Relationship between Variables

Association between two variables, in which one increases while the other decreases

Null Hypotheses (Ho)

Statistical hypothesis that is tested for possible rejection under the assumption that it is true

• NO RELATIONSHIP EXISTS

Alternative Hypothesis (H1)

The hypothesis contrary to the no hypothesis, it usually suggest that two variables are related

• YOUR RESEARCH HYPOTHESIS

Rejection of the Noel leads to conditional acceptance of the alternative

Qualitative Research

Collection of data in the form of text or images using open, ended questions, observation, or “found” data

• Preliminary insights, followed up by quantitive research

• Can dig deeper

  • Qualifying answers

• Small sample sizes

• Asking or observation data

  • Primary data or secondary “found” data

• Content analysis

• Limited generalizability

  • Less Reliable

Quantitative Research

Place is heavy emphasis on using formal standard questions and predetermined response options and questionnaires or surveys administered to large numbers of responses

• Precise information needs

• Goals: test predicted (hypothesized) relationships between market factors, and behaviors

• Larger sample sizes

• Can be primary or secondary data

• Statistically predictable (stronger, generalizability and reliability)

• Qualitative data can be transformed into quantitive data

Focus Group Interviews

Qualitative data collection method, an exploratory research design

Responses to open ended questions are collected from a small group of participants who interactively and spontaneously. Discuss topics of interest to the researcher.

Process for Developing a Focus Group Interview: #1 Planning

Understand the purpose of the study, problem, definition, and data requirements

who appropriate participants will be, how to select a recruit participants, how many focus groups

Selection and Recruitment of Participants

• Purposive sampling

• Stratified, purposive sampling

• Theoretical sampling

• Size and location

Process for Developing a Focus Group Interview: #2 Conducting Group Discussions

• Moderator’s guide is developed: topics and questions

• Questions are asked, including follow up probing

• Moderator ensures all participants contribute

Process for Developing a Focus Group Interview: #3 Analyzing and Reporting Results

• Researchers debrief all the key players to compare notes

• Analyze data using content analysis

• Prepare and present formal report

Purposive Sampling

Selecting sample members to study, because they possess attributes important to understanding the research topic

Stratified Purposive Sampling

Selecting sample members, so that groups can be compared

Theoretical Sampling

Selecting sample members based on earlier interviews that suggest particular types of participants will help researchers better understand the research topic

Size and Location

• 8-12 per group

• Professional focus group facility

Focus group moderator

Person who is well trained in the interpersonal communication, skills and professional manners required for a focus group

Moderator’s Guide

Detailed outline of the topics, questions, and sub questions, used by the moderator to lead the focus group session

• Ask questions in unique ways

• At different levels of generality

• Exercises to stimulate conversation

• Facilitate talking from all members

• Remain neutral

• Support disclosure

• When closing present opportunity to express final thoughts

Debriefing Analysis

Interactive procedure, in which the researcher and moderator discussed the subjects’ responses to the topics that outlined the focus group session

Content Analysis

The systematic procedure of taking individual responses and grouping them into larger theme, categories, or patterns

• Format Transcripts

Strengths of Focus Groups

• Synergistic

  • Stimulate new ideas, thoughts and feelings about a topic

• Faster, understanding of consumer behavior

• Allow client participation

• Elicit wide range of responses

Weaknesses of Focus Groups

• Findings lack generalizability to the target population

  • Reliability of the data is limited

• Trustworthiness of the interpretation is based on care and insightfulness of researchers

• Groupthink: phenomenon in which one or two members of a group state an opinion and others of the group are excessively influenced

In-Depth Interviews

A quantitive data collection method in which a well trained interviewer asked a participant a set of semi structured questions in a face-to-face setting

• General to specific questions

• Probing questions

In comparison to focus groups:

• Richer detail

• Less socially, desirable responding

• Less cross talk

Projective Techniques

Indirect method of questioning that enables a subject to project, beliefs and feelings:

• On to a third party

• Into a task situation

• Onto an in animate object

Can be used in conjunction with focus groups or in-depth interviews

Types of Projective Techniques

• Word and picture association

• Completion tasks- sentence, or cartoon

• Analogy

• Role-playing

• Story telling

• Zaltman metaphor elicitation technique (ZMET)

Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Techniques (ZMET)

Only patented method for marketing

Visual research technique used in in-depth interviewing that encourages research participants to share emotional and subconscious reactions to a particular topic

• Based off projective hypothesis

• Collect photos over a week

• Compare/contrast

Observation Methods

Commonly used in cost of research, but can also be used in quantitative research

Observation Research

Systematic observation and recording of behavioral patterns of objects, peoples events and other phenomena

“Watching” Data

• Physical actions

• Expressive behaviors

• Spatial relations

• Verbal behavior (Tone)

• Temporal behavior

• Physical objects

Ethnography

Form a qualitative data collection that records behavior in natural settings to understand how social and (sub)cultural influences affect, individual behaviors and experiences

• Can be used as a segmentation study

• Requires extended observation

• Participant observation

• Non-participant observation

Participant observation

Involves extended observation of behavior in natural settings, in order to fully experience, cultural or subcultural contexts

Non-participant observation

Researchers observed, without participating directly in event

Approaches used to collect data for descriptive research

• Asking questions

• Observation

Descriptive research designs often use

Survey research methods:

Research procedures for collecting large amounts of data using predetermined question and answer formats

Sampling Errors

• The difference between the findings based on the sample and the true values for a population

• Caused by the method of sampling used in the size of the sample

• Occurs strictly from the fact that a sample was taken

• Can be reduced by:

  • Increasing sample size

  • Using an appropriate sampling method

Non-Sampling Errors

1. Respondent errors: consist of both non-response. Error and response error

2. Non-response error: systematic bias that occurs when the final sample differs from the plan sample

3. Response error: respondents, have impaired memory, or do not respond accurately. Ex. socially, desirable, responding, guessing or averaging out answer

In-Person and Telephone-Administered Surveys

Advantages:

• Feedback

• Quality of responses

Disadvantages:

• Interviewer-respondent interaction error. Ex. body language, facial expressions, tone of voice

• Expensive

Self Administered Surveys

Advantages:

• Low cost per survey, easy to distribute

• Anonymity in responses

• Technology enhancement of online

Disadvantages:

• Minimizes feedback and flexibility

• Potential response errors

• High non-response error

  • Low response rates and opt in nature of panels often makes for less representative sample

Situational Characteristics

• Budget

• Completion timeframe

• Quality requirements and anonymity

• Completeness of data

Task Characteristic

• Required stimuli

• Amount of information asked from respondents

• Topic sensitivity: degree to which a survey question leads to respondent to give a socially acceptable response

Causal Research Design

Studies that enables researchers to assess cause and effect relationships between two or more construct/variables

• If X, then Y statements

• Independent variables: variables whose values are directly manipulated by the researcher

• Dependent Variables: measures of outcomes that occur as a result of changes, in levels of the independent, or causing variables

3 Conditions for Causality

1. X comes before Y

2. X ← → Y (Correlated)

3. Control for all other possible variable

Experiment

Empirical investigation that test for hypothesize relationships between manipulated independent variables, and measure dependent variables

KEY: IV’s manipulated, DV’s measured, other Variables controlled

Validity

Extent to which the conclusions drawn from an experiment are true

Internal Validity

Extent to which the research design accurately identifies causal relationships

• Have competing explanations been ruled out?

• Are the manipulations of the IV good?

• Was the DV measured correctly?

External Validity

Extent to which a causal relationship found in a study, can be expected to be true for the entire target population (Found IRL; AKA generalizability)

• Is the sample size large enough?

• What is the sample random?

• Is the effect context specific?

• Does the effect only apply to a specific behavior?

• Is the effect lightly found in the real world?