Chp 7: Marketing Research Flashcards
define marketing research
set of techniques and principles for systematically collecting, recording, analyzing, and interpreting data that can aid decision makers involved in marketing goods/services/ideas
what is marketing research key to
developing strategies, assessing 4Ps, developing STP, understand competitive intelligence, consumer buying behaviour
Lecture: 2 roles of marketing research
1) communication link between firm and industry, competition, market, employees, customers
2) provides useful info for understanding, decision-making, planning
why is competitive intelligence useful
because it takes uncertainty out of operations, they know links between firms and environment to build strategies through customer feedback, monitoring competitors, identifying opportunities
define customer lifetime value
expected financial contribution from a particular customer to the firm’s profits over course of their relationship
5 steps in marketing research process
1) define research problem & objectives
2) design research plan
3) collect data
4) analyze data and develop insights
5) determine action plan
step 1 in marketing research process: define research problem & objectives - 3 points
1) Problem needs to be correctly defined. If the problem is not defined correctly, you may end up with the wrong solution
2) If you defined problem correctly but fail to carry out rest of process correctly you may end up with misleading/useless results
3) It’s important to separate symptoms of a problem from actual problems (ex. Declining sales may not be due to low advertising but poor product)
step 1 in marketing research process: define research problem & objectives: 3 sources poor design can arise from?
1) basing research on irrelevant research questions
2) focusing on research questions that marketing research can’t answer
3) addressing research questions to which answers are already known
Lecture: 3 things to identify in step 1) research problem & objectives in marketing research process
1) what do we need to know
2) why do we need to know it (clarify info that you specifically need)
3) find fundamental issue - distinguish between cause, symptom, impact
Lecture: give example of symptom, impact, cause
symptom: 30% loss of sales force in first year of employment
impact: high cost of on-boarding and low consumer satisfaction
cause: poor incentive structure
step 2 in marketing research process: define research plan: what happens here?
Researchers identify type of data needed and determine type of research needed to collect it
Lecture: step 2 in marketing research process: define research plan: 4 steps to define research plan
1) project objectives
2) type of research necessary
3) type of data needed
4) type of data available
Lecture: 3 degrees of problem definition and give example of each
1) exploratory - initial research into hypothesis ex. why are sales declining
2) descriptive - explore and explain info gathered in exploratory research ex. what is a fair price point for our product
3) causal - connect ideas to understand cause and effect ex. test if purchase rates are correlated to price by having one location’s product on sale and the other not
step 3 in marketing research process: collect data: define data
raw numbers of other factual info of limited value. when interpreted becomes info that marketers can use
step 3 in marketing research process: collect data: 2 sources data can be collected from
primary, secondary sources
step 3 in marketing research process: collect data: define secondary data - 3 points
info that has been collected prior to the start of the focal research project. Includes external and internal data sources. not specific to research objective.
step 3 in marketing research process: collect data: define primary data
data collected to address specific research needs.
step 3 in marketing research process: collect data: what do firms do because they can’t interview every customer and example
Firms cannot interview every customer, so they look at group of customers who represent customers of interest, or a sample and generalize their opinions to all customers with same characteristics (at random to represent entire customer market or characteristic on if they are children)
step 4 in marketing research process: analyze data & develop insights: define info
data that has been organized, analyzed, interpreted and converted into a useful form for decision makers
step 4 in marketing research process: analyze data & develop insights: example
collect data about individual consumer purchases and then analyze data to determine what products are purchased together
step 4 in marketing research process: analyze data & develop insights: what should you make sure you don’t do
Misinterpreting findings or manipulating statistics to suit researcher’s prediction can lead to wrong decisions which could have consequences for marketers
step 5 in marketing research process: determine action plan
Prepare results and present to decision makers who undertake appropriate marketing actions and strategies
LO2: 2 secondary data types
1) internal
2) external
LO2: internal secondary data: define data mining
use of statistical analysis tools to uncover previously unknown patterns in the data or relationships among variables
LO2: internal secondary data: why do firms use data mining
Firms use data mining techniques to extract valuable info from their databases
LO2: internal secondary data: example of firm using data mining
netflix identifies when certain groups watch shows and what shows are watched together and make recommendations
LO2: internal secondary data: what results can come from data mining
company can identify when consumer is dissatisfied and lower churn levels
LO2: internal secondary data: define churn
number of participants who discontinue use of a service / average number of total participants
LO2: internal secondary data: how can firms assess profitability of their customers
Firms can use secondary data to assess the profitability of their customers by determining their customer lifetime value (CLV)
LO2: internal secondary data: define big data
refers to extremely large quantities of data that companies have access to but are unable to handle using conventional data management and data mining software
LO2: internal secondary data: how can big data help firms
Big data can help firms analyze what customer is purchasing, analyzing purchase patterns and suggesting other items customer might enjoy
LO2: external secondary data: what must researchers ensure when using secondary data
Researchers must ensure that the secondary data they use is current and relevant and can shed light on research problem or objectives
LO2: internal secondary data: examples of internal secondary data
customer purchase histories, customer info
LO2: external secondary data: 5 examples
1) guides
2) statistics canada
3) newspapers
4) trade sources
5) syndicated data
LO2: external secondary data: define syndicated data
data available for a fee from commercial research firms
LO2: external secondary data: why would firms use syndicated data
Free or inexpensive secondary data may not be completely relevant or helpful
LO2: external secondary data: define scanner data
data obtained from scanner readings of UPC codes at checkout counters and used in quantitative research
LO2: external secondary data: define panel data
info collected from a group of consumers over time