Marketing Research: An Overview

Marketing

Marketing: typically seen as the task of creating, promoting, and delivering goods and services to consumers and businesses.
or

Process of facilitating exchanges

Marketing Paradigms

Production Concept
Low price, Available

Product Concept
Quality, Performance, Features

Selling Concept
Need for aggressive selling

Marketing Concept
Meeting customer needs

Marketing: Some Complexity

50% increase in new product offerings 90% fail in the market

Marketing Concept
Be contextually market sensitive and Plan Understand customer needs Meet customer needs in a way that provides value to the customers

Marketing Implications of Marketing Concept

Understand your consumer

Who is s/he ? What does s/he do ? How do I reach her ?

Understand what s/he prefers

Product Place

Intricacies involved in Marketing Concept

Individual Processes
Needs Perceptions Personality Self Attitude Learning

Intricacies involved in Marketing Concept

Social Processes
Groups/ Segments Role of family and friends reference groups Subcultural influences Cultural Influences
Institutional influences; Normative forces, cultural factors

Intricacies involved in Marketing Concept

Different Brands Mean different things

What is a brand? Product functions it performs Symbolism or Imagery
E.g. Honda vs. Royal Enfield

Intricacies involved in Marketing Concept

Brands
Understand the 2-D Brand Space
Berthon, Holbrook and Hulbert 2003

FunctionalEnacted Reified Abstract

Consumption objects as bridges and fences

Marketing Research

Marketing Research is a process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem. In other words, MR is used to define marketing opportunities and problems; generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions; monitor performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.

Marketing Research
Used to identify and define market opportunities and problems

Generate and refine, marketing performance

Case: Sony Play Station

Sony is planning to develop a new gaming console. It has decided to name this new product as Sony Playstation 3. The firm is pondering over various decision points in this new development. It is unable to decide on whether they should introduce a 20 GB hard disk or not. It is also thinking in terms of adding additional features like broad band enabled device, which may or may not have wireless control. Sony management is also discussing the possibility of having a financing scheme with a suitable pricing decision. It is attempting to develop a suitable price between Rs. 8000-17000 depending on the features. How should Sony arrive at these decisions? It also has to assess how competitor Microsoft (with its product Micrsoft XBOX 360) is evaluated for a similar offering? Design a study to resolve this problem.

Marketing Research Process

Step 1: Problem Definition Step 2: Research Design Formulation Step 3: Fieldwork or Data Collection Step 4: Data Preparation and Analysis Step 5: Report Preparation and Presentation

Management Decision Problem Vs. Marketing Research Problem

Management Decision Problem Should a new product be introduced? Marketing Research Problem To determine consumer preferences and purchase intentions for the proposed new product. To determine the effectiveness of the current advertising campaign. To determine the price elasticity of demand and the impact on and profits of various levels of price changes.

Should the advertising campaign be changed?

Should the price of the brand be increased? sales

Proper Definition of the Research Problem

Marketing Research Problem Broad Statement

Specific Components

Case: Sony Playstation

Marketing Problem
What should be the features of the new play station to be launched by Sony?

Marketing Research Problem

How do consumers evaluate the following features of a Play Station:
Memory Broadband enablement Finance Schemes Price Brand

Research Questions and Hypotheses

Research questions (RQs) are refined statements of the specific components of the problem. A hypothesis (H) is an unproven statement or proposition about a factor or phenomenon that is of interest to the researcher. Often, a hypothesis is a possible answer to the research question.

Case : Sony Play Station

Hypotheses
Better memory leads to higher rating of a Play station. Broadband enablement leads to higher rating of a play station. Consumers are willing to pay a higher premium for brand Sony.

Case : Sony Play Station

The key research objectives are as follows:

To assess the new Play Station offering in terms of the following:
Memory, wireless, and Broad band enablement Pricing options Response to financing schemes. Brand perceptions

Case : Sony Play Station

RESEARCH DESIGN
The proposed methodology to achieve the study objective would involve conducting face to face interviews using a structured questionnaire. Target Respondent
Male SEC A Age: 12-30.

Case : Sony Play Station

Option 1 14 centres across 7 states Option 2 11 centres across 7 states

Offer rationale for sample selection

Sampling House to house listing following the right hand rule will be adopted to identify eligible respondents. In each centre appropriate number of starting points will be chosen for this purpose.

Case : Sony Play Station

ANALYSIS AND KEY DELIVERABLES Analysis: The data will be analysed at the following level
Overall level At overall level we will analyze data by ALL India. The data will be weighted as per the population proportion and SEC. At the state level. Data will be weighted by town class and population By SEC across centres

Classification of Marketing Research

Quantitative Research Qualitative Research

Quantitative Research
Now that you have been to Pantaloons, How did you like the following attributes of this store at an overall level? As I read out each attribute tell me your opinion on a 7 -point scale where 7 stand for you liked it very much and 1 stands for you disliked it very much. You can choose any number between 1 and 7, including 1 and 7 depending on how you feel. Please remember there is no right or wrong answers SHOW CARD 1 SINGLE CODE, READOUT
Disliked very much Liked it very much

Quality of Service 1 Quality of clothing 1 Price 1

2 2 2

3 3 3

4 4 4

5 5 5

6 6 6

7 7 7

Range of clothing 1

3
3

4
4

5
5

6
6

7
7

Convenience of location 1 2

Qualitative Research

Please describe your experience of shopping at Pantaloons?

Why did you choose Pantaloons over other alternatives?

Marketing Research

Qualitative
Naturalistic Inquiry/Focus Group,DI
Textual Analysis

Quantitative
Survey/Experiment Based
Enumeration

Marketing Research Suppliers & Services

Internal suppliers External suppliers

Full-service suppliers
Syndicated services Customized services Limited-service suppliers Field services Coding and data entry services Data analysis services