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REVISION MATERIALS FOR EXAM.

1. What is marketing research? What is the nature of marketing research?


Can you define market research? What are applied and basic research?
Where does the marketing concept fit into market research? What is market
research used for? (Think about the managerial value, use in strategic
decision making.) When is market research needed? What are the six steps
in the marketing research process? What are the ethical considerations?
Topic 1
What is marketing research?
The application of the scientific method in searching for the truth about marketing
phenomena. These activities include defining marketing opportunities and problems,
generating and evaluating marketing ideas, monitoring performance, and understanding
the marketing process.

What is the nature of marketing research?


• Understanding the Value Equation
¾ Companies must produce bundles of benefits that consumers will view as
valuable.
¾ Key questions:
™ What do we sell?
™ How do consumers view our company?
™ What does our company/product mean?
™ What does our company/product mean?
¾ Marketing research can help a company achieve the goal of creating
valuable experiences for customers.

Can you define market research?


• Marketing Research Defined
¾ The systematic and objective process of generating information for aid in
making marketing decisions

What are applied and basic research?


• Applied Research
¾ Research conducted to address a specific marketing decision for a specific
firm or organization.
• Basic Research

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¾ Research conducted without a specific decision in mind that usually does
not address the needs of a specific organization.
™ Attempts to expand the limits of marketing knowledge in general
™ Is not aimed at solving a pragmatic problem.

Where does the marketing concept fit into market research?


• Marketing research can help:
¾ maximize customer satisfaction with purchase
¾ identity after-sale services
¾ prevent commercialization of products that are not consumer-oriented
¾ identify optimal pricing to maximize profitability
¾ increase sales efficiency through effective use of market data

(Define the marketing concept as well)

What is market research used for?


• Key ways in which researchers contribute to decision making:

1.Helping to better define the current situation


2.Defining the firm—determining how consumers, competitors, and
employees view the firm
3.Providing ideas for product improvements or possible new product
development
4.Testing ideas that will assist in implementing the marketing mix strategy for
the firm
5.Examining how correct a certain marketing theory is in a given situation

When is market research needed?


• The determination of the need for marketing research centers on:
1.Time constraints
2.The availability of data
3.The nature of the decision to be made
4.Benefits versus costs (the value of the research information in relation to
costs).

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a. Will the payoff or rate of return be worth the investment?
b. Will the information improve the quality of the marketing decision
enough to warrant the expenditure?
c. Is the expenditure the best use of the available funds?

What are the six steps in the marketing research process? (Topic 3)
• Process Stages:
1.Defining the research objectives
2.Planning a research design
3.Planning a sample
4.Collecting the data
5.Analyzing the data
6.Formulating the conclusions and preparing the report
• Forward linkage: earlier stages influence later stages.
• Backward linkage: later steps influence earlier stages of the research process.

What are the ethical considerations? (Topic 4)

• Everyone involved in marketing research can face an ethical dilemma:


¾ The people actually performing the research, who can also be thought of
as the “doers”
¾ The research client, sponsor, or the management team requesting the
research, who can be thought of as “users” of marketing research
¾ The research participants, meaning the actual research respondents or
subjects.
• Each party has certain rights and obligations toward the other parties.

________________________________________________________________________

2. Market research process and the human side of marketing research: for
example, what is data, information, and intelligence? How do we judge the
usefulness of data? How does research assist marketing operations?

Topic 2

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Definition
• Data
¾ Facts or recorded measures of certain phenomena (things).
• Information
¾ Data formatted (structured) to support decision making or define the
relationship between two facts.
• Market intelligence
¾ The subset of data and information that actually has some explanatory
power enabling effective decisions to be made.
Usefulness of Data
• Relevance
¾ The characteristics of data reflecting how pertinent these particular facts
are to the situation at hand.
• Data Quality
¾ The degree to which data represent the true situation.
• Timeliness
¾ Means that the data are current enough to still be relevant.
• Information Completeness
¾ Having the right amount of information.

Research assists marketing operations

• Decision Support System (DSS)


¾ Helps decision makers confront problems through direct interaction with
computerized databases and analytical software programs.
¾ Stores data and transform them into organized information that is easily
accessible to marketing managers.
• Components of a Decision Support System
¾ Databases
¾ Software programs
• Customer Relationship Management (CRM)
¾ A system for bringing together many important pieces of information:
• Customer profiles, sales, marketing effectiveness/ responsiveness,
market trends

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¾ CRM provides a complete, dependable, and integrated view of its
customer base.
• Management, salespeople, customer service can access customer
preferences and purchase information to match customer needs
with product offerings and service requirement reminders.

________________________________________________________________________

3. Qualitative, exploratory and secondary data research: what is meant by these


terms? What are the major phases of the marketing research process?
Where, when and how are these types of market research used? What are
the ethical considerations?

• Qualitative Marketing Research (Topic 5)


¾ Research that addresses marketing objectives through techniques that
allow the researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of market
phenomena without depending on numerical measurement; its focus is on
discovering true inner meanings and new insights.
• Qualitative research is useful when:
¾ It is difficult to develop specific and actionable decision statements or
research objectives.
¾ The research objective is to learn how consumers use a product in its
natural setting or to learn how to express some concept in colloquial
terms.
¾ A fresh approach to studying the problem is needed.

Exploratory research (can be both qualitative and quantitative data):


• Qualitative Data
¾ Data that are not characterized by numbers but rather are textual, visual, or
oral
™ Focus is on stories, visual portrayals, meaningful characterizations,
interpretations, and other expressive descriptions.
™ The primary output of exploratory research
• Quantitative Data
¾ Represent phenomena by assigning numbers in an ordered and meaningful
way.
¾ Are useful in testing hypotheses.

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• Concept Testing
¾ A frequently performed type of exploratory research representing many
similar research procedures all having the same purpose: to screen new,
revised, or repositioned ideas.
™ Allows an initial evaluation prior to the commitment of any
additional research and development, manufacturing, or other
company resources.
™ Works best when it not only identifies ideas with potential and
points out critical flaws, but it can also lead to important
refinements.
• Experience Surveys
¾ Asking knowledgeable individuals about a particular research problem
¾ Most subjects are quite willing to participate.
• Secondary Data Analysis
¾ Using data collected for a purpose other than the project at hand.
™ Economical
™ Quick source for background information

• Case Studies
¾ The documented history of a particular person, group, organization, or
event.
¾ Used in an investigation of one or a few situations similar to the problem.
• Pilot Study
¾ Is a collective term for any small-scale exploratory research project that
uses sampling but does not apply rigorous standards.
¾ Generates primary data for qualitative analysis.
• Focus Group Interview
¾ An unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group of around six
to ten people led by a moderator who encourages dialogue among
respondents.

Secondary Data research (Topic 6)


• Secondary Data Defined

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¾ Data gathered and recorded by someone else prior to and for a purpose
other than the current project.
Purposes of secondary data research include:

• Fact Finding
¾ Identification of Consumer Behavior for a Product Category
¾ Trend Analysis
• Market tracking—the observation and analysis of trends in
industry volume and brand share over time.
¾ Environmental Scanning
• Information gathering and fact-finding that is designed to detect
indications of environmental changes in their initial stages of
development.
• Model Building
¾ Estimating market potential or sales forecasting.
• Database Marketing
¾ Enhancing customer databases or developing prospect lists.
________________________________________________________________________

4. Experimental research: what is experimental research? What is an


independent variable? What is, and how do we minimize, the systematic
experimental error? What are experimental demand characteristics and
how can we minimize them? What would be some unethical experimental
practices and how can these be avoided? What are internal and external
validity and why is there often a trade off between them? What is test
marketing and when is it appropriate to use?
Topic 9

™ Experiment Defined

• A research investigation in which conditions are controlled.

™ Experimental Research

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• Allows a researcher to control the research situation so that causal
relationships among variables may be evaluated.
i. Independent variables are expected to determine the outcomes of
interest.
ii. Dependent variables are the outcomes of interest to the researcher
and the decision makers.
Systematic Error

¾ Systematic or nonsampling error


™ Subject selection, experimental design, and unrecognized
extraneous variables
(Read up on how to reduce systematic error)

Demand Characteristic

• Demand Characteristic
¾ An experimental design element or procedure that unintentionally provides
subjects with hints about the research hypothesis.
• Demand Effect
¾ Occurs when demand characteristics actually affect the dependent variable.
• Experimenter Bias
¾ The influence of the presence, actions, or comments of an experimenter on
subjects’ behavior.

• Reducing Demand Characteristics


1. Use an experimental disguise.
2. Isolate experimental subjects.
3. Use a “blind” experimental administrator.
4. Administer only one treatment level to each subject.

Ethical Issues
• Debriefing experimental subjects
¾ Communicating the purpose of the experiment
¾ Explaining the researcher’s hypotheses about the nature of consumer
behavior

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• Attempts to interfere with a competitor’s test-marketing efforts
¾ Such acts as changing prices or increasing advertising to influence
(confound) competitors’ test-marketing results are ethically questionable.

Internal and External Validity

• Internal Validity
¾ The extent that an experimental variable is truly responsible for any
variance in the dependent variable.
™ Did the experiment answer the question of causal effect?
™ Did the manipulation do what it was supposed (predicted) to do?

• External Validity
¾ The accuracy with which experimental results can be generalized beyond
the experimental subjects.

• Trade-Offs Between Internal and External Validity


¾ Artificial laboratory experiments usually are high in internal validity,
while naturalistic field experiments generally have less internal validity,
but greater external validity.

Test Marketing

¾ An experimental procedure that provides an opportunity to test a new


product or a new marketing plan under realistic market conditions to
measure sales or profit potential.

(See Transparencies 27 and 28 of Topic 9)


________________________________________________________________________

5. Questionnaire (survey) design: explain the significance of decisions about


questionnaire design and wording. Define alternatives for wording open-
ended and fixed-alternative questions. Summarize guidelines for questions
that avoid mistakes in questionnaire design. Describe how the proper
sequence of questions may improve a questionnaire. Discuss how to design a
questionnaire layout. Describe criteria for pretesting and revising a

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questionnaire and for adapting it to global markets. Advantages and
disadvantages of surveys?

Read up Topic 11 – a rather easy topic to understanding.


________________________________________________________________________
6. What are the tools of market research? What is meant by each (can you
define observation? What about survey? What about interviews? Etc.)
Where would we use them? What are the advantages and disadvantages?
When would each be used? In what situations would each be applicable?
Better than another tool?

Market Research tools include survey, observation, experiment or secondary data.

Observation (Topic 8)
• Observation
¾ The systematic process of recording the behavioral patterns of people,
objects, and occurrences as they are witnessed.
• Observation is a tool for scientific inquiry when it:
™ Serves a formulated research purpose.
™ Is planned and recorded systematically.
™ Is related to general propositions rather than simply reflecting a set
of interesting curiosities.
™ Is subjected to checks or controls on validity and reliability.

• Limitations of Observations in General


¾ Observation can describe the event that occurred but cannot explain why
the event occurred.
¾ Observation over long periods is expensive or even impossible.
¾ Cognitive phenomena cannot be observed.
¾ Interpretation of data may be a problem.
¾ Not all activity can be recorded.
¾ Only short periods can be observed.
¾ Observer bias is possible.
¾ Observation may become an invasion of privacy.

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Survey (Topic 9)
• Respondents
¾ People who verbally answer an interviewer’s questions or provide answers
to written questions.
• Survey
¾ A method of collecting primary data in which information is gathered by
communicating with a representative sample of people.
• Sample Survey
¾ A survey that emphasizes contacting respondents who are a representative
sample of the target population.

• Survey Objectives: Type of Information Gathered


¾ Surveys attempt to describe what is happening or to learn the reasons for a
particular marketing activity.
¾ Survey research is descriptive research:
™ Identifying characteristics of target markets
™ Measuring consumer attitudes
™ Describing consumer purchasing patterns
¾ Surveys can be both quantitative and qualitative
¾ Surveys can be designed to provide insights about causal explanations or
to explore ideas.
• Advantages of Surveys
¾ Gathering information via surveys is:
™ Quick
™ Inexpensive
™ Efficient
™ Accurate
™ Flexible
• Disadvantages of Surveys
¾ Potential Problems
™ Poor design
™ Improper execution
Personal Interview (Topic 7)

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• Surveys ask a respondent for information using verbal or written questioning.
¾ There is no best form of survey; each form has advantages and
disadvantages.
• Communicating with Respondents
¾ Personal interviews
™ Door-to-door
™ Shopping mall intercepts
™ Telephone interviews

• Advantages and Disadvantages of Interview (Transparencies 15 and 16 of Topic


7)
________________________________________________________________________

7. When should research be conducted externally and when it should be done


internally? What role does the human side play in market research? What,
if any, are the ethical implications of this topic? What are the rights and
obligations of a) research respondents – particularly children, b) marketing
researchers, and c) research clients or sponsors? How can market
researchers avoid a conflict of interest in performing marketing research?
Topic 4

• Outside Agency (Externally)


¾ An independent research firm contracted by the company that will benefit
from the research.
™ Fresh perspective
™ More objectivity
™ Special expertise
• In-house Research (Internally)
¾ Research performed by company employees.

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™ Quick turn-around
™ Better collaboration with employees
™ Less expensive process
™ Secrecy

Human Side in Market Research

• Everyone involved in marketing research can face an ethical dilemma:


¾ The people actually performing the research, who can also be thought of
as the “doers”
¾ The research client, sponsor, or the management team requesting the
research, who can be thought of as “users” of marketing research
¾ The research participants, meaning the actual research respondents or
subjects.
• Each party has certain rights and obligations toward the other parties.

(Read transparencies from 13 to 20 of Topic 4)


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