CH05: Conducting Marketing Research Flashcards
marketing research
the function that links the consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information
the 4 goals of marketing research
- identify and define marketing opportunities and problems
- generate, refine, evaluate marketing actions
- monitor marketing performance
- improve understanding of marketing as a process
marketing insights
how and why we observe certain effects in the marketplace
who performs marketing research?
- marketing departments in big firms
- syndicated-service research firms (Nielsen, IRI); sold for a fee
- custom marketing research firms (hired for specific projects)
- specialty-line marketing research firms (e.g. field interviewing services)
the 5 steps in marketing research process
- define the problem
- develop the research plan
- collect the information
- analyze the information
- make the decision
types of research
- exploratory
- descriptive (quantitative)
- causal (cause/effect relationships)
marketing research problem components
- decision alternatives
- research objectives
secondary data
data that were collected for another purpose and already exist somewhere
primary data
data freshly gathered for a specific purpose or project
observational research
observe unobtrusively as customers shop or consume products; sometimes include informal interview sessions
ethnographic research
uses concepts and tools from anthropology and other social science disciplines to provide cultural understanding of how people live and work; goal is to uncover deeper, unarticulated desires
focus group research
gathering of 6 to 10 people convened to discuss various topics at length for a small payment; professional moderator asks questions and probes based on an agenda; goal is to uncover consumers’ real motivations
survey research
surveys to assess people’s knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and satisfaction
behavioral research
experimental research designed to capture cause-and-effect relationships by eliminating competing explanations of the findings; analyses traces of purchasing behavior from store scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases
dichotomous question type
two possible answers
multiple choice question type
three or more answers
Likert Scale question type
statement with levels of agreement/disagreement (1-5)
semantic differential question type
scale connecting two bipolar words; respondent selects the point that represents his or her opinion
importance scale question type
scale that rates the importance of some attribute
rating scale question type
scale that rates some attribute from “poor” to “excellent”
intention-to-buy scale question type
describes respondent’s intention to buy
completely unstructured question type
respondents can answer in an almost unlimited number of ways
word association question type
words are presented, one at a time, and respondents mention the first word that comes to mind
sentence completion question type
an incomplete sentence is presented and respondents complete the sentence
story completion question type
an incomplete story is presented and respondents are asked to complete it
picture interpretation question type
a picture of to characters is presented, with one making a statement; respondents are asked to identify with the other and fill in the empty speech bubble
the 5 types of qualitative measures
- word associations
- projective techniques
- visualization
- brand personification
- laddering
components of the sampling plan
- sampling unit
- sample size
- sampling procedure
ways of collecting information
- sampling plan
- contact methods
- data mining
purposes of data mining
- to identify prospects
- to decide which customers should receive a particular offer
- to deepen customer loyalty
- to reactivate customer purchases
- to avoid serious customer mistakes
market demand
the total volume that could be bought by a customer group under certain environmental conditions
market insight
observation made or conclusion drawn after analyzing relevant market data
company demand
company’s estimated share of market demand at alternative levels of company marketing effort in a given time period
market forecast
market demand corresponding to the action level of industry marketing expenditure
company sales forecast
expected level of company sales based on chosen marketing plan and assumed marketing environment
sales quota
sales goal set for product line, company division, or sales representative; generally set higher than estimated sales to motivate sales force
sales budget
conservative estimate of expected volume of sales, used to make purchasing, production, and cash flow decisions; generally set lower than sales forecast to avoid excessive risk
market potential
maximum sales available to all firms in an industry given certain environmental conditions
company sales potential
sales limit approached by company demand as company marketing effort increases relative to that of competitors
the 3 types of market demand forecasts
- macroeconomic
- industry
- company sales
past-sales analysis
time series analysis that breaks past sales into four components (trend, cycle, seasonal, erratic) and projects them into the future
market-test method
directly test the market to help forecast new-product sales or sales of established products in new distribution channels; used when buyers don’t plan purchases carefully, or when experts are unavailable/unreliable
marketing metrics
the set of measures that help marketers quantify, compare, and interpret their performance
marketing-mix modeling
analyzes data from a variety of sources to understand more precisely the effects of specific marketing activities
marketing dashboards
provide real-time information necessary to run the business operations for a company; e.g. sales vs forecast, brand equity evolution, etc.
customer pathway
customer journey; how prospects become customers, from awareness to preference to trial to purchase
unit metrics pathway
reflects what marketers know about sales of product/service units
cash-flow metrics pathway
focuses on how well marketing expenditures are achieving returns; focused on ROI models, NPV, etc.
brand metrics pathway
tracks the longer-term impact of marketing through brand equity measures that assess perceptual and financial health of the brand
