MR Crash Course

Question 1

11 steps in the marketing research process

Answer 1

1) Establish need
2) Define problem
3) Research objectives
4) Determine design
5) Identify information sources
6) Decide data collection method
7) Design questionnaire
8) Determine sample plan and size
9) Collect data
10) Analyze data
11) Write and present report

Question 2

Step 2 defining research problems/questions

Answer 2

• Problems are situations calling for managers to make choices among alternatives
• With the right information, managers can choose the correct decision alternative.

Question 3

2 potential situation where managers need to make decisions

Answer 3

• A problem exists when a gap exists between what was supposed to happen and what did happen
• An opportunity occurs when there is a gap between what happened and what could have happened.

Question 4

Problem or Opportunity?

When united airlines violently dragged a passenger off an overbooked flight?

Answer 4

problem

Question 5

Problem or Opportunity?

When Elon Musk and his co-founders decided to create Paypal as an alternative to the traditional payment system

Answer 5

opportunity

Question 6

Problem or Opportunity?

When apple realized the iPhone XR didn’t turn out to be as popular as expected

Answer 6

problem

Question 7

Problem or Opportunity?

When apple launched Apple Card with no “foreign transaction fee”

Answer 7

opportunity

Question 8

recognizing the situation that managers need to make decisions

Answer 8

• Recognize a problem managers must be knowledgeable of goals and actual performance
• To be aware of a opportunity managers must have a process for monitoring opportunities, such as opportunity identification system

Question 9

symptoms

Answer 9

are effects or results

Question 10

problems

Answer 10

are causes

Question 11

Identification of causes

Answer 11

• Once symptoms have been validated, it is important to identify ALL possible causes for the symptoms
• The researcher and the manager should reduce ALL possible causes to probable causes

Question 12

Step 3: Defining Research Objectives

Answer 12

• Research objectives are totally dependent on the “problem” but they different in that they tell the researcher more specifically what to do
• Research objectives state specifically what information, including what, who, and the unit of measurement, will be collected in order to allow the manager to select the correct decision alternative.

Question 13

Step 4: Research Design

Answer 13

• Research design can be thought of as different types of data collection tools
• The choice of the most appropriate design depends largely on the objectives of the research and how much is already known about the problem and research objects

Question 14

Appropriate design:

to gain background information, to define terms, to clarify problems and hypotheses, to establish research priorities

Answer 14

exploratory

Question 15

Appropriate design:

To describe and measure marketing phenomena

Answer 15

descriptive

Question 16

Appropriate design:

To determine causality, to make “if-then” statements

Answer 16

casual

Question 17

Exploratory Research - “what happened”

Answer 17

a variety of methods are available to conduct exploratory research

• interview
• focus group
• observation
• secondary data analysis
• case study

Question 18

Descriptive Research - “ .. here is what happened” - more specific

Answer 18

• descriptive research is undertaken to describe answers to questions of who, what, when, where, and how
• descriptive research is desirable when we wish to project a study’s findings to a larger population if the study’s samples is representative

Question 19

Descriptive research

Answer 19

• cross sectional studies

- longitudinal studies

Question 20

cross sectional studies

Answer 20

focus more on the “breadth” -width

• measures unit from a sample of the population only one point in time (snapshot/single photo)
  ex: how many ppl. shop online at this moment

Question 21

longitudinal studies

Answer 21

focus more on “depth”

• repeatedly measures the same sample units of a population over a period of time (series of photos/movies)
  ex: track spending over course of time

Question 22

casual research

Answer 22

causality may be thought of as understanding a phenomenon in terms of conditional statement of the form “if X, then Y”

• Casual studies are conducted through the use of experiments
  ex: “give a pill, loose weight”

Question 23

indecent variable (x)

Answer 23

are those variables which the researcher has control over and wishes to manipulate

Question 24

dependent variable (y)

Answer 24

are those variables that we have little or o direct control over yet we have strong interest

Question 25

extraneous variable

Answer 25

are those variables that may have some effect on a depends variable YET ARE NOT IND variables

Question 26

Experiments

Answer 26

an experiment is defined as manipulate an ind. variable to see how it affects a dep. variable, while also controlling the effects of additional extraneous variables.

Question 27

max

Answer 27

maximize the variance due to the indecent variable

Question 28

min

Answer 28

minimize the variance due to error

Question 29

con

Answer 29

control all extraneous variables

Question 30

identifying causality

Answer 30

evidence of causality:

• the appropriate sequence of the occurrences: the “causes” always happen before the “effects
• concomitant variation - two phenomena vary together : whenever “X” changes, “Y” also changes
• an absence of alternative plausible explanations: there is only one probable cause

Question 31

Step 5: Identify Data type and sources

Answer 31

Primary v secondary

Question 32

primary

Answer 32

information that is developed or gathered by the researcher specifically for the research project at hand

Question 33

secondary

Answer 33

information that has previously been gathered by someone other than the researcher and for some other purpose than the research project at hand

Question 34

secondary data sources

Answer 34

internal - data that has been collected such as sales records, purchase orders, invoices, complaints, and customer service logs

external databases- databases supplied by organizations outside the firm

Question 35

internal secondary sources

Answer 35

database Marketing - building and maintianing customer databases and other databases for …

• 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

Question 36

external databases

Answer 36

supplied by organizations outside the firm

• published sources
• official data
• data aggregators

Question 37

Step 6: decide the data collection method

Answer 37

qualitative vs quantitative

Question 38

qualitative research

Answer 38

research involving collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and say

Question 39

quantitative research

Answer 39

research involving the use of structured questions in which response options have been predetermined and large number of respondents involved

Question 40

qualitative data collection methods

Answer 40

• observation
• focus group
• ethnographic research
• in-depth interview
• projective techniques

Question 41

qualitative - observation

Answer 41

observation methods- techniques in which the researcher relies on his or her powers of observation rather than communication with a person in order to obtain information

Question 42

types of observation

Answer 42

• direct vs indirect
• disguised vs undisguised
• structure vs unstructured
• human vs mechanical

Question 43

qualitative observation:

Direct vs indirect

Answer 43

direct - observing behavior as it occurs (active) ex: watch Super Bowl on tv - current game time

indirect- observing the effects or results of the behavior rather than the behavior itself (passive) ex: crime scene - happens later

Question 44

qualitative observation:

disguised vs undisguised

Answer 44

disguised- subject is unaware that he or she is being observed ex: cop - speeding

undisguised- respondent is aware of observation ex: LG Slim tv stealing

Question 45

qualitative observation:

structured vs unstructured

Answer 45

• structured- research identifies beforehand which behaviors are to be observed and recorded . often there is a checklist
• unstructured - all behavior is observed and the observer determines what is to be recorded

Question 46

qualitative observation:

human vs mechanical

Answer 46

human - observer is a person hired by the researcher or perhaps the observer is the researcher

ex: Cop

mechanical- observation - human observer is replaced with some form of static observing device

ex: siri or devices with a camera when you run a red light

Question 47

pros and cons of observation

Answer 47

• insight into actual , not reported , behaviors
• no chance for recall error
• better accuracy
• less cost
• small number of subjects
• subjective interpretations
• inability to pry beneath the behavior observed
• motivation, attitudes, and other internal conditions are unobserved

Question 48

qualitative - focus group

Answer 48

focus groups - small groups of people brought together and guided by a moderator through an unstructured , spontaneous discussion for the purpose of gaining information relevant to the research problem

• focus groups should be used when the research objective is to describe RATHER THAN predict

ex: how do consumers describe a better package?
- how would they describe their satisfaction with our service?

Question 49

pros and cons of a focus group

Answer 49

• can generate fresh ideas
• allow clients to observe their participants
• may be directed at understanding a wide variety of issues such as motives, perceptions, attitudes
• allow fairy easy access to special respondent groups
• representatives of participants
• dependance on the moderator
• difficult interpretation sometimes