Midterm Review

Question 1

Define Marketing

Answer 1

Short definition: “meeting needs profitably”
American Marketing Association: “Marketing is the activity, set of institutions, and processes for creating, communicating, delivering, and exchanging offerings that have value for customers, clients, partners, and society at large.
•Identify core competencies
•Identify potential customers who can benefit from those core competencies
•Cultivate relationships with these customers by creating value that meets their specific needs
•Collect feedback from the market, learn from feedback and improve values offered to public

Question 2

Define Market Research

Answer 2

Market research is the process of gathering information to make better decisions. Process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem

Question 3

What are the different types of market research methodologies?

Answer 3

Qualitative
	Interviews
	Focus Groups
	Ethnographies
	Observational

Quantitative
Surveys
Behavioral data

Question 4

What are the 11 steps of the market research process?

Answer 4

Step 1: Establish the need for marketing research
Step 2: Define the problem
Step 3: Establish research objectives
Step 4: Determine research design
Step 5: Identify information types and sources
Step 6: Determine methods of accessing data
Step 7: Design data collection forms
Step 8: Determine the sample plan and size
Step 9: Collect data
Step 10: Analyze data
Step 11: Prepare and present the final research report

Question 5

Who is Charles Coolidge Parlin?

Answer 5

Founder of what we know as market research. Example: women vehicle drivers

Question 6

What is an example of a managerial decision problem

Answer 6

What the decision maker needs to do:
• Action oriented
• Focuses on symptoms • Examples
• Should a new product be introduced?
• Should the advertising campaign be changed?
• Should the price of the brand be increased?

Question 7

What is an example of a marketing research problem?

Answer 7

What information is needed & how it can be best obtained:
• Information oriented
• Focuses on underlying causes
• Examples
• What are consumer preferences and purchase intentions for a new product?
• What is the effectiveness of current ad campaign?
• What is the acceptable price level and impact on profit?

Question 8

What are the tradeoffs of market research?

Answer 8

The Information: What information is required?
The Accuracy: How accurate does it need to be?
The Budget: How much have I got to play with?
The Timetable: When is it needed by?

Question 9

What are the main reasons you should NOT conduct market research?

Answer 9

Lack of Expertise
Lack of resources
Closed mindset
Information not needed 
Vague objectives
Results not actionable
Late timing
Poor timing
Costs outweigh benefits

Question 10

What are the main reasons you SHOULD consider conducting marketing research?

Answer 10

If a decision needs to be made and you don’t know…
• enough about what customers actually need;
• what’s on their minds or how their situation is changing;
• how many customers of Type X versus Type Y are out there;
• what they are (un)happy about, or what’s driving this (un)happiness;
• how customers select a vendor, search for information, decide where to shop, and so forth;
• what drives the choice of one product configuration over another;
• how much they’d be willing to pay; and
• how many would buy at this price.

Question 11

What are the types of market research by objective?

Answer 11

Specify from whom information is to be gathered
• Specify what information is needed
• Specify the unit of measurement used to gather information
• Word questions used to gather information using the respondents’ frame of reference

Question 12

What are the types of market research by methodology?

Answer 12

Exploratory 
Secondary data 
• Experience surveys 
• Case analysis 
• Focus groups

Descriptive (Who What When Where Why)
Sample surveys
• Longitudinal studies
• Panels

Casual
Experiments • A/B Testing • Pre/Post Tests

Question 13

Explain the pros and cons of qualitative and quantitative research?

Answer 13

Qualitative Research: exploratory, interview, focus groups, ethnography, social listening

Pros: gain understanding of the underlying reasons and motivations, more objective, used for observations

Cons: is subjective, can be prone to research bias, cannot be generalized

Quantitative Research: survey methodology, sampling, experimentation

Pros: quantify data and generalize the results from the sample to the population of interest

Cons: slow, expensive, and difficult, requires large pool of samples to interpret data

Question 14

What is the most important step in the market research process?

Answer 14

Step 2: Defining the problem because if the problem is incorrectly defined, all that follows is wasted effort.

Question 15

What is the process for defining a problem?

Answer 15

1) Recognize the Problem
2) Understand the Background of the Problem
3) Determine What Decisions Need to Be Made
4) Identify What Additional Information Is Needed
5) Formulate the Problem Statement

Question 16

What are some examples of decision alternatives?

Answer 16

Definition: all marketing actions that the manager thinks may resolve the problem.
Examples: price changes, product modification or improvement, promotion of any kind, and adjustments in channels of distribution.

Question 17

What are some examples of research objectives?

Answer 17

Definition: A goal-oriented statement or question that specifies what information is needed to solve a problem.
Clear, Specific, and Actionable.

Question 18

What decision models do people typically employ for making decisions?

Answer 18

Compensatory Model - Multi-attribute cost-benefit analysis model use to make a decision
• Alternative with highest overall score is selected
• Includes weights, so weak performance and one attribute can be compensated by performance on another
Non-Compensatory Model - An alternative with a value on some attribute below a cut-off level is rejected no matter how high its score on another attribute
• Conjunctive (set minimum cutoffs to reject “bad” options) vs disjunctive (set acceptable cutoffs to find “good” options)
• Lexicographic model (find the option with the highest value on the most important, so the 2nd most important) vs elimination by aspects model (adds the notions of acceptable cutoffs)

Question 19

What are some examples of heuristics?

Answer 19

How should we make decisions when NOT all alternatives, consequences, and probabilities are known? Gambling and stock markets

Question 20

What are some examples of biases?

Answer 20

Anchor bias- people often use the first piece of information as an anchor
Availability bias- people make judgments about the probability of events on the basis of how easy it is to think of examples.

Question 21

What are some examples of retrieval errors when it comes to memory?

Answer 21

Decay- Memory naturally decaying over time
Interference - when memory networks are closely aligned; confused about which features go with which brand
Primacy and Recency Effects - greater memory for information that comes first or last in a sequence

Question 22

What are the types of secondary data?

Answer 22

Internal data (databases, record, fields, data mining)

External data (Published sources, Official Statistics,Trade associations and magazines Academic journals Newspapers Social media listening Interview experts)

Question 23

What is social media monitoring and how is it useful?

Answer 23

Also known as social media listening, involves actively gathering, organizing, and analyzing social media data to gain consumer insights.

Question 24

What are the different types of qualitative research?

Answer 24

Direct Observation, Indirect observation, Covert and Overt observation, Structured and Unstructured observations, in situ versus invented observations. (pg. 116-117)
• Direct Observation: observing behavior as it occurs (people at a bar)
• Indirect Observation: observing the effects or results of the behavior rather than the behavior itself
oArchives: secondary sources, such as historical records, that can be applied to the present problem
o Physical traces: tangible evidence of some past event
•In situ observation: the researcher observes the behavior exactly as it happens
• Invented observation: the researcher creates the situation

Focus groups, online focus groups
Ethnography, Shopalongs, mobile ethnography, Netnography
In-depth interviews, laddering, Protocol analysis, projective techniques ( word association test, sentence completion test)

Question 25

In which situations are qualitative research activities appropriate?

Answer 25

When large scale surveys are inappropriate. Qualitative research techniques afford rich insight into consumer behavior. To understand cultural nuances.

Question 26

What are the different types of questions to ask in a focus group?

Answer 26

Non-Biased Questions, Probing Questions, Spontaneous Questions.

Question 27

What is the ladder method of interviewing and why is it useful?

Answer 27

A technique used in in-depth interviews in an attempt to discover how product attributes are associated with desired consumer values.
It comes from the notion that the researcher is trying to establish the linkages, or steps, leading from the product attributes to values.
“Good health”

Question 28

What are some techniques employed by Reynolds and Gutman for interviews?

Answer 28

Laddering, “Good Health” (pg. 130)
• Evoking the Situation Context: think of a realistic occasion when you use the product
• Postulating the Absence of an Object or State of Being: what would it be to lack an object or not feel a certain way
• Negative Laddering: why participants do not do certain things and feel certain ways
• Age-Regression Contrast Probe: move participants backwards in time
• Third Person: ask how others may feel in similar situations

Question 29

What are some examples of projective techniques?

Answer 29

Involve situations in which participants are placed in (projected into) simulated activities in the hopes that they will divulge things about themselves that they might not reveal under direct questioning.

1) Word-Association Test
2) Sentence-Completion Test
3) Picture Test
4) Cartoon or Balloon Test
5) Role-Playing Activity

Question 30

When should a market researcher use projective techniques?

Answer 30

Projective techniques are appropriate in situations in which the researcher is convinced that respondents will be unable or unwilling to relate their true opinions.
Ex) Undesirable behaviors: smoking, illegal practices, dieting, etc.

Question 31

What are the qualities of good interview/focus group questions?

Answer 31

Open ended, single topic or issue, the question should be brief, the question should be grammatically simple, question should be crystal clear. (pg. 188)
• Have 5-10 questions that build on one another to get closer to answering the main question
• Good questions that are open-ended, singular, clear, neutral
• Who, what, where, when type questions
• Ask people to elaborate or expand on their answer
• Have illustrative examples
• Use role-playing questions and simulation questions

Question 32

Argue the point that we should not accept the first interpretation of a business problem from a manager.

Answer 32

Managers are more likely to always know the symptoms (sales are down, market share is falling), but determining the cause of the symptoms requires research.
• Recognize the problem
• Understand the background of the problem

Question 33

Compare and contrast the arguments of asking “why” vs. not asking “why” when it comes to questions.

Answer 33

Pros of Asking Why:
• Asking usually leads to the answer you want to know anyways
• Good for exploratory research
• Gives Post-rationalization reasons
Cons of Asking Why:
• Respondent may not know
• Can feel like an interrogation for the respondent
• Not actually the question you want answered
o Influence - What influenced you to buy this?
o Attributes - What attributes made you buy?
o Impulses How do you typically shop?

Question 34

Which is a more useful methodology: Observation or focus groups/interview? Explain your reasoning.

Answer 34

Advantages of Observational Data
• Insight into actual, not reported, behaviors
• No chance to recall error
• Better accuracy
• Less cost
Appropriate Conditions to use Observation:
• Short time interval for collecting information (can’t take months)
• Can be used for public behavior
• Faulty recall conditions (automatic behaviors that consumers can’t recall)
Limitations of Observational Data:
• Small number of subjects
• Subjective interpretations
• Inability to pry beneath the behavior observed
• Motivational, attitudes, and other internal conditions are unobserved
_______________________________________________________________________
When to use Focus Groups
• Interested in group/herd dynamic
• Gauge the “energy” of an idea
• Not a lot of time or money
• Want to understand “Why”
• Objective is to describe rather than predict
o How do consumers describe a better package?
o How would they describe their satisfaction with our service?
o How could they describe their ideas for an ad campaign?
When NOT to use Focus Groups
• Focus groups should not be used when the research questions require a prediction or when a major decision affecting the company’s livelihood rests on the research results

Question 35

Was Henry Ford right when he said, “If I asked my customers what they wanted, they’d ask for a faster horse?” Defend you position.

Answer 35

Customers are very good at describing the problems that they are having. For example wanting to get somewhere faster) hence that faster horse. But consumers are not the best at identifying the best answer to the problem. This is where design thinking comes in and helps bridge the divide between the business and the consumer. Ideally bringing value to the consumer and a loyal repeat customer for the business.

Question 36

Why is it so hard to define the problem?

Answer 36

• Managers tend to act rather than plan
• Psychologically easier to focus on solution than problem
• Managers and Researchers sometimes don’t collaborate
• Marketing problems are complex

Question 37

Market Research Process

Answer 37

Process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information
that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem
• Systematic
• Methodologically sound (Use best practices)
• Well-documented at every stage (CYA)
• Objective and impartial
• “Find it and tell it like it is”

Question 38

Types of data

Answer 38

• secondary data: relatively easy to access

- primary data: more complex