Ch 7 Flashcards
Marketing Research
Consists of a set of techniques and principles for systematically collecting, recording, analyzing and interpreting data that can aid decision makers involved in marketing goods, services or ideas.
Firms find market research useful for 4 reasons
Reduces uncertainty
Provides crucial link between firms and their environments which enables firms to be customer oriented because they build their strategies by using customer input and continual feedback
firms can anticipate and respond quickly to competitive moves
Can identify emerging opportunities to satisfy consumer needs and wants
Market Research Process
Step 1: define the research problem and objectives
Step 2: design the research plan
Step 3: collect data
Step 4: analyze data and develop insights
Step 5: determine the action plan
Step 1: define the research problem and objectives
Must separate the symptoms of a problem from the actual problem
Poorly defined research objectives arise form 2 major sources:
Basing research on irrelevant research questions
Focusing on research questions that marketing research cannot answer
Addressing research questions to which the answers are already known
Step 2: design the research plan
Researchers identify the type of data needed and determine the type of research necessary to collect it
Objectives of the project determine what type of data is needed
Step 3: collect data
Primary data; data collected to address specific research needs
- Focus groups, in-depth interviews, surveys
Secondary data; pieces of information that have been collected prior to the start of the focal research project
- Internal and external
Step 4: analyze data and develop insights
Data; raw numbers or other pieces of factual information on their own
- Purpose of converting data to information is to describe, explain, predict and/or evaluate a particular situations and then use it to develop insights
Step 5: determine the action plan
Analyst prepares the results and presents them to decision makers to take appropriate marketing actions
Secondary Data
Comes from census data, information from trade associations, books, journal articles, reports published in magazines and newspapers
internal/external
Internal secondary data
Includes customer information and purchase history
Necessary to use data-mining techniques to extract valuable info from databases
External secondary data
Can be accessed quickly and at relatively low cost
Scanner data; obtained from scanner readings of UPC codes at checkout counters and used in quantitative research
Panel data; information collected from group of consumers (the panel) over time
Data collection research
qualitative, quantitative
Reliability
extent to which you will get the same result if the study is repeated in identical situations
- Consistency
Validity
extent to which the study actually measures what it is supposed to measure
- Accurately
Sample
segment/subset of the population that adequately represents entire population of interest
- Important for reliability and validity
Qualitative research methods
observation, in depth interviews, focus groups, social media
Observation
examining purchase and consumption behaviours through personal means, or the use of technology (ex. Video camera), or tracking consumers’ movement electronically
Ethnography; observational method that studies people in their daily lives and activities in their homes, work and communities
Social media
users of social media are rarely shy about providing opinions about the firm’s products or its competitor’s offerings
- Used to analyze reviews, dislikes, likes of customers
In-depth interviews
are relatively time consuming and expensive
Focus group interviews
small group of persons (usually 8-12) come together for an in-depth discussion about a topic
Quantitative research methods
survery, panel and scanner based, experiments
Survey research
most popular type of quantitative primary research method
More cost effective and reaches large audience, can be easily analyzed
consumers can be unable to answer some questions, may not be able to recall the information, interpret the questions differently than researchers intended
survey vs questionairre
Survey; systematic means of collecting information from people that generally uses a questionnaire
Questionnaire; form of survey that features set of questions designed to gather information from respondents
- Can be done by phone, mail, internet, in person
- Can be unstructured or structured
structured vs unstructured
Unstructured; open ended questions to allow respondents to answer in own words
Structured; close ended questions with a discrete set of response alternatives
Panel and scanner based research
Can be both primary or secondary
Experimental research
manipulates one or more variables to determine which variables have a casual effect on another variable
The ethics of using customer information
Firms will notify customers that any information provided to them will be kept confidential and not sold to any other firm
Marketers must be vigilant to avoid abusing access to consumer data
Privacy act
governs collection, use, disclosure and retention of personal information by federal government institutions
Canadian marketing association provides 3 guidelines for conducting marketing research
Prohibits selling or fundraising under the guide of conducting research
Supports maintaining research integrity by avoiding misrepresentation or the omission of pertinent research data
Encourages the fair treatment of clients and suppliers
