5. Market Research Flashcards
What is market research?
“The systematic design, collection, analysis and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing problem facing the company”
links the organisation to the environment within which its operating
Market Research Process
- Define problem and research objectives
- Develop research plan for collecting data
- Implement research plan
What are the limitations of market research
- does not make decisions
- GIGO, have to ensure questions are useful/accurate
- Cannot predict the future, may be wrong e.g. walkman
- less useful for innovative decisions e.g. HF
Sources of Bias
- interviewer bias
- nature of question bias
- interview environment bias
Types of data
primary/secondary
qualitative/quantitative
Marketing mistake: coke
- Defined research problem as ‘why is the taste of pepsi preferred to coke’
- changed recipe - > outrage
- should have defined problem as why is coke losing sales to pepsi?’
Advantages/disadvantages of quantitative
Adv
+ cheaper to collect
+aggregated answers, provides bredth
Dis
- tells ‘what’ but not ‘why’
- large sample size needed
Questionnaire design
- every question must have a purpose
- always do a pilot
- concise/clear
- use filters
Continuous Research
Consumer panels
- specialist MR companies recruit households that are willing to have their buying patterns traced for the use of companies
- e.g. PNS ( Pre and Post Natal Survey) - 700 pregnant women and 600 mothers with babies
Marketing Information System (MIS)
The marketing information system (MIS) is comprised of:
people
technology
procedures
- to gather, sort, analyse, evaluate and distribute necessary, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers.
Research Methods
Interviews/surveys
Internet research e.g. clicks
Observational e.g. mystery shopping
Sampling methods
Random
- everyone has equal chance of being selected
- not too easy to achieve
Stratified
- sampling frame divided into groups
- used commonly in B2B because clients are grouped into company size/ usage rate etc
Cluster
- Representative geographical areas (clusters) selected, random sample drawn from each
Judgement
- common in B2B
- researchers actively choose participants that are useful
- e.g. research into UK mobile phone industry would need to include the five operators - 02, Vodafone, Orange, T-Mobile and 3
Quota
- Interviewers select people to be interviewed against pre-determined numbers and strata (characteristics)
- quick and cheap
- Extremely common in commercial market research
- Risks bias
Qualitative research
provides depth - the ‘why’
engages participants in discussion
more expensive to analyse
focus group, depth interview
Definition of the ‘market’ to marketers
A market is the set of buyers and the industry is the set of sellers.
The size of the market is determined by the number of buyers who might exist and they have 3 characteristics:
interest, income and access.
Forecasting future demand
Environmental forecast
Inflation, Unemployment, Interest rates, Consumer spending and saving, Business investment, Government expenditure.
Industry forecast
Company sales forecast
Buyers’ intentions, Composite of sales force opinions, Expert opinion.
Test market method.
Time series analysis, Leading indicators, Statistical demand analysis, Information analysis.
