Chapter One Flashcards
Marketing research
The organization’s formal communication link with the environment.
Research process
A general sequence of steps that can be followed when designing and conducting research.
Marketing research ethics
The principles, values, and standards of conduct followed by marketing researchers.
Advocacy research
Research that is conducted to support a position rather than to find the truth about an issue.
Sugging
Contacting people under the guise of marketing research when the real goal is to sell products or services.
Normal thinking
A routine way of looking at a business situation. Researchers should offer a new perspective on the situation if possible.
Decision problem
The basic problem facing the manager, for which marketing research is intended to provide answers.
Discovery-oriented decision problem
A decision problem that typically seeks to answer “What?” or “Why?” questions about a problem/opportunity. The focus is generally on generating useful information.
Strategy-oriented decision problem
A decision problem that typically seeks to answer “How?” questions about a problem/opportunity. The focus is generally on selecting alternative courses of action.
Research problem
A restatement of the decision problem in research terms.
Research request agreement
A document prepared by the researcher after meeting with the decision maker that summarizes the problem and the information that is needed to address it.
Research proposal
A written statement that describes the marketing problem, the purpose of the study, and a detailed outline of the research methodology.
Request for proposal (RFP)
A document that describes the problem for which research is sought and asks providers to offer proposals, including cost estimates, about how they would perform the job.
Exploratory research
Research design in which the major emphasis is on gaining ideas and insights.
Descriptive research
Research design in which the major emphasis is on determining the frequency with which something occurs or the extent to which two variables covary.
Causal research
Research design in which the major emphasis is on determining cause-and-effect relationships.
Hypothesis
A statement that describes how two or more variables are related.
Literature search
A search of popular press (newspapers, magazines, and so forth), trade literature, academic literature, or published statistics from research firms or governmental agencies for data or insight into the problem at hand.
Depth interviews
Interviews with people knowledgeable about the general subject being investigated.
Focus group
An interview conducted among a small number of individuals simultaneously; the interview relies more on group discussion than on directed questions to generate data.
Case analysis
Intensive study of selected examples of the phenomenon of interest.
Benchmarking
Using organizations that excel at some function as sources of ideas for improvement.
Ethnography
The detailed observation of consumers during their ordinary daily lives using direct observations, interviews, and video and audio recordings.
Cross-sectional study
Investigation involving a sample of elements selected from the population of interest that are measured at a single point in time.
Longitudinal study
Cross-sectional study in which the sample is selected to be representative of the target population and in which the emphasis is on the generation of summary statistics such as averages and percentages.
Sample survey
A fixed sample of respondents who are measured repeatedly over time, but on variables that change from measurement to measurement.
Field experiment
Research study in a realistic situation in which one or more independent variables are manipulated by the experimenter under as carefully controlled conditions as the situation will permit.
Market testing
A controlled experiment done in a limited but carefully selected sector of the marketplace.
Standard test market
A test market in which the company sells the product through its normal distribution channels.
Controlled test market
An entire test program conducted by an outside service in a market in which it can guarantee distribution.
Simulated test market
A study in which consumer ratings and other information are fed into a computer model that then makes projections about the likely level of sales for the product in the market.
Secondary data
Information not gathered for the immediate study at hand but for some other purpose.
Primary data
Information collected specifically for the Investigation at hand.
Primary source
The originating source of secondary data.
Secondary source
A source of secondary data that did not originate the data but rather secured them from another source.
Decision support system (DSS)
A combination of database, analytical models, and dialog system that allows managers to develop and access customized information.
Data mining
The use of analytic techniques to explore the data held within a dataset in order to isolate useful information.
Geodemopgraphy
The availability of demographic, consumer-behavior, and lifestyle data by arbitrary geographic boundaries that are typically quite small.
Single source data
Data that allow researchers to link together purchase behavior, household characteristics, and advertising exposure at the household level.
Motive
A need, want, drive, urge, wish, desire, impulse, or any inner state that energizes, activates, or moves and that directs behavior toward goals.
Structured observation
The problem has been defined precisely enough so that the behaviors that will be observed can be specified beforehand, as can the categories that will be used to record and analyze the situation.
Unstructured observation
The problem has not been specifically defined, so a great deal of flexibility is allowed the observers in terms of what they note and record.
Fixed alternative question
A question in which the responses are limited to stated alternatives.
Open ended question
A question for which respondents are free to reply in their own words rather than being limited to choosing from among a set of alternatives.
Mail questionnaire
A questionnaire administered by mail to designated respondents with an accompanying cover letter. The respondents return the questionnaire by mail to the research organization.
Internet based questionnaire
A questionnaire that relies on the Internet for recruitment and/or completion; two forms include e-mail surveys and questionnaires completed on the Web.
Nominal scale
Measurement in which numbers are assigned to objects or classes of objects solely for the purpose of identification.
Ordinal scale
Measurement in which numbers are assigned to data on the basis of some order (e.g., more than, greater than) of the objects.
Interval scale
Measurement in which the assigned numbers legitimately allow the comparison of the size of the differences among and between members.
Ratio scale
Measurement that has a natural, or absolute, zero and therefore allows the comparison of absolute magnitudes of the numbers.
Itemized rating scale
A scale on which individuals must indicate their ratings of an attribute or object by selecting the response category that best describes their position on the attribute or object.
Summated rating scale
A self-report technique for attitude measurement in which respondents indicate their degree of agreement or disagreement with each of a number of statements.
Validity
The extent to which differences in scores on a measuring instrument reflect true differences among individuals, groups, or situations in the characteristic that it seeks to measure, or true differences in the same individual, group, or situation from one occasion to another, rather than systematic or random errors.
Relibility
Ability of a measure to obtain similar scores for the same object, trait, or construct across time, across different evaluators, or across the items forming the measure.
Response order bias
An error that occurs when the response to a question is influenced by the order in which the alternatives are presented.
Assumed consequence
A problem that occurs when a question is not framed so as to clearly state the consequences and thus generates different responses from individuals who assume different consequences.
Double barreled question
A question that calls for two responses and creates confusion for the respondent.
Funnel approach
An approach to question sequencing that gets its name from its shape, starting with broad questions and progressively narrowing down the scope.
Question order bias
The tendency for earlier questions on a questionnaire to influence respondents’ answers to later questions.
