marketing - chapter 10

basic steps of conducting a focus group

1. Establish the objectives of the focus group. What is its purpose? 2. Identify the people who will participate in the focus group. What makes them qualified to participate? How many of them will you need, and what they will be paid? 3. Obtain contact information for the participants, and send out invitations (usually emails are most efficient). 4. Develop a list of questions. 5. Choose a facilitator. 6. Choose a location in which to hold the focus group and the method by which it will be recorded. 7. Conduct the focus group. If the focus group is not conducted electronically, include name tags for the participants, pens and notepads, any materials the participants need to see, and refreshments. Record participants' responses. 8. Summarize the notes from the focus group and write a report for management.

Ideally, a marketing information system should include not only transactional data, data about individual customers, and big data, it should include the following:

1. a system for recording internally generated data and reports 2. analytics functions to help managers with their marketing decision making; 3. a system for collecting market intelligence on an ongoing basis; and 4. a system for conducting and recording marketing research.

steps in the marketing research process

1. define the problem (or opportunity) 2. design the research 3. design the data collection forms 4. specify the sample 5. collect the data 6. analyze the data 7. write the research report and present findings

types of research design

1. exploratory research design 2. descriptive research design 3. casual research design (experiments)

six basic elements of a research paper

1. title page - The title page explains what the report is about, when it was conducted and by whom, and who requested it. 2. table of contents - The table of contents outlines the major parts of the report, as well as any graphs and charts, and the page numbers on which they can be found. 3. executive summary - The executive summary summarizes all the details in the report in a very quick way. Many people who receive the report—both executives and nonexecutives—won't have time to read the entire report. Instead, they will rely on the executive summary to quickly get an idea of the study's results and what to do about those results 4. methodology and limitations - The methodology section of the report explains the technical details of how the research was designed and conducted. The section explains, for example, how the data was collected and by whom, the size of the sample, how it was chosen, and whom or what it consisted of (e.g., the number of women versus men or children versus adults). It also includes information about the statistical techniques used to analyze the data. Every study has errors—sampling errors, interviewer errors, and so forth. The methodology section should explain these details, so decision makers can consider their overall impact. The margin of error A measure of the possible inaccuracy of the data reported in a survey.is the overall tendency of the study to be off kilter—that is, how far it could have gone wrong in either direction. Think about how newscasters present presidential poll information before an election. They always say, "This candidate is ahead 48 to 44 percent, plus or minus 2 percent." That "plus or minus" is the margin of error. The larger the margin of error is, the less likely the results of the study are accurate. The margin of error needs to be included in the methodology section. 5. findings - The findings section is a longer, fleshed-out version of the executive summary that goes into more detail about the statistics uncovered by the research that bolster the study's findings. If you have related research or secondary data on hand that back up the findings, it can be included to help show the study did what it was designed to do. 6. recommendations - The recommendations section should outline the course of action you think should be taken based on the findings of the research and the purpose of the project. For example, if you conducted a global market research study to identify new locations for stores, make a recommendation for the locations.

data management platform

A DMP is used to target groups of consumers automatically with online advertisements

margin of error

A measure of the possible inaccuracy of the data reported in a survey.

double-barreled questions

A survey question that is potentially confusing because it asks two questions in the same question. "Do you think parents should spend more time with their children and/or their teachers?" is an example of a double-barreled question.

location based ads

Ads targeted toward consumers based on their locations, which are identified by the mobile devices they use.

field experiment

An experiment conducted in a natural setting such as a store Companies sometimes do field experiments either because it is more convenient or because they want to see if buyers will behave the same way in the "real world" as in a laboratory or on a computer.

touchpoint

Any type of contact a company has with its customers

scanner based research

Scanner-based research is information collected by scanners at checkout stands in stores. Each week Nielsen and IRI collect information on the millions of purchases made at stores. The companies then compile the information and sell it to firms in various industries that subscribe to their services.

test market

The place the experiment is conducted or the demographic group of people the experiment is administered to Before a large company rolls out a product to the entire marketplace, it will often place the offering in a test market to see how well it will be received.

gauging the credibility of secondary information

Who gathered this information? For what purpose? What does the person or organization that gathered the information have to gain by doing so? Was the information gathered and reported in a systematic manner? Is the source of the information accepted as an authority by other experts in the field? Does the information provide objective evidence to support the position presented?

focus group

a group of potential buyers who are brought together to discuss a marketing research topic with one another. A moderator is used to focus the discussion, the sessions are recorded, and the main points of consensus are later summarized by the market researcher.

exploratory research design

a less structured type of research design used to initially investigate a marketing research project that hasn't yet been defined well enough for an in-depth study to be conducted useful when you are initially investigating a problem but you haven't defined it well enough to do an in-depth study of it. Perhaps via your regular market intelligence, you have spotted what appears to be a new opportunity in the marketplace. You would then do exploratory research to investigate it further and "get your feet wet," as the saying goes. Exploratory research is less structured than other types of research, and secondary data is often utilized.

marketing research aggregator

a marketing research company that doesn't conduct its own research and sell it. Instead, it buys research reports from other marketing research companies and then sells those reports in their entirety or in pieces to other firms. Its website features a huge number of studies in every category imaginable that you can buy for relatively small amounts of money. Market research aggregators buy research reports from other marketing research companies and then resell them in part or in whole to other companies so they don't have to gather primary data.

sentiment analysis

a method of examining the content in blogs, tweets, and other online media (other than news media) such as Facebook posts and making sense of it. For example, does the word "suck" often appear in conjunction with your brands or company? If so, you likely have a problem. A sentiment analysis is often done to determine how the market is reacting to new products that have been launched.

back translation

a native speaker translates the survey into the foreign language and then translates it back again to the original language to determine if there were gaps in meaning—that is, to see if any information became distorted or lost in translation. And it's not just the language that's an issue. If the research involves any visual images, they, too, could be a point of confusion. Certain colors, shapes, and symbols can have negative connotations in other countries. For example, the color white represents purity in many Western cultures, but in China, it is the color of death and mourning

valid

a study that actually tests what it was designed to test and not something else

reliable

a study that, when repeated, produces the same or nearly the same result

sample

a subset of potential buyers that is representative of your entire target market or population being studied Sometimes market researchers refer to the population as the universe to reflect the fact that it includes the entire target market, whether it consists of a million people, a hundred thousand, a few hundred, or a dozen.

Customer Data Platform (CDP)

a system that collects and stores all your customer data, for analysis and use by marketers. A CDP makes it easier for marketers to build and execute targeted, data-driven strategies. A key function of a Customer Data Platform is to unify fragmented customer data within business silos. A CDP is populated with information gathered both internally and externally to create a "profile" or "fuller picture" of an individual customer. The company can then make better use of the information, to do marketing research, more accurately target customers, and conduct effective ad campaigns geared toward them, among other things. Today, the trend is toward CDP systems versus CRM systems.

chief privacy officer (CPO)

a top-level executive responsible for developing policies to ensure his or her firm is collecting information legally, collecting information accurately, and not misusing that information.

predictive analysis

an advanced branch of analytics that utilizes sophisticated techniques such as data mining, statistics, experiments, and machine learning to detect patterns and develop models used to predict future outcomes. For example, "If we spend ten percent more of our advertising on mobile-phone ads instead of Facebook ads, what effect will it have on sales?"

qualitative research

any form of research that includes gathering data that is not quantitative, and often involves exploring questions such as why as much as what or how much. Different forms, such as depth interviews and focus group interviews, are common in marketing research.

sampling error

any type of marketing research mistake that results because a sample was utilized. Although Internet surveys are fast and less expensive to conduct, they are sometimes criticized because the people who take these surveys don't really represent the overall population. On average, Internet survey takers tend to be more educated and tech savvy. Consequently, if they solely constitute your population, even if you screen them for certain criteria, the data you collect could end up being skewed.

nonprobability sample

any type of sample that's not drawn in a systematic way. So, the chances of each would-be participant being selected can't be known.

projective techniques

are used to reveal information research respondents might not share by being asked directly. Asking a person to complete sentences such as the following is one technique: "people who buy LV handbags _____" (will they reply with "are cool" or "are pretentious" for example)

data brokers

ather both online and offline secondary data about consumers, create detailed profiles of them, and then sell the information to other firms. The information can come from many sources: public records, cookies (files websites place on a person's computer to remember their preferences), information sold to them by credit card companies, Facebook and Google, location information based on our mobile phone apps, loyalty program information they purchase from retailers, and even information gleaned from obituaries in newspapers. It's not uncommon for a data broker to collect a thousand pieces of information on a single individual. Axicom, Oracle Cloud, and Epsilon, are some of the largest data broker companies.

secondary data sources:

census data, websites, publications, trade associations, syndicated research, aggregated research, data brokers

data warehousing

combining data into one locatino

structured data

concrete information that fits neatly into a spreadsheet—information such as what a consumer spent, what product(s) was purchased, at what store, and so on are examples. In other words, structured data is information that is easily quantifiable, can be manipulated, and is reportable.

clickstream data

data generated about the number of people who visit a website and its various pages, how much time they spend on each, what they "like" and don't like, and what they buy or don't buy. Companies also buy clickstream data from external sources

secondary data

data that has already been collected by someone else, or data you have already collected for another purpose. Collecting primary data is more time consuming, work intensive, and expensive than collecting secondary data. Consequently, you should always try to collect secondary data first to solve your research problem, if you can. A great deal of research on a wide variety of topics already exists. If this research contains the answer to your question, there is no need for you to replicate it. Why reinvent the wheel?

depth interview

engaging in detailed, one-on-one, question-and-answer sessions with potential buyers—is an exploratory research technique. However, unlike surveys, the people being interviewed aren't asked a series of standard questions. Instead the interviewer is armed with some general topics and asks questions that are open ended, meaning that they allow an interviewee to elaborate. "How did you feel about the product after you purchased it?" is an example of a question that might be asked. A depth interview also allows a researcher to ask logical follow-up questions such as, "Can you tell me what you mean when you say you felt uncomfortable using the service?" or "Can you give me some examples?" to help dig further and shed additional light on the research problem. Depth interviews can be conducted in person or over the phone. The interviewers either takes notes or record the interviews. They are, however, expensive to conduct. Sometimes they are reserved for interviews with executives or industry experts.

casual research design

examines cause-and-effect relationships. Using a causal research design allows researchers to answer "what if" types of questions. In other words, if a firm changes X (say, a product's price, design, placement, or advertising), what will happen to Y (say, sales or customer loyalty)? To conduct causal research, the researcher designs an experiment that "controls," or holds constant, all of a product's marketing elements except one (or using advanced techniques of research, a few elements can be studied at the same time). The one variable is changed, and the effect is then measured. For example, the lighting or music in the "store" might be changed, or the shopper might be offered one promotion on a product and then a different promotion later. Sometimes the experiments are conducted in a laboratory using a simulated setting designed to replicate the conditions buyers would experience.

methods of survey data

face to face, phone, test message, mail and hand delivery, email and the web

unstructured data

information that's gleaned from people's comments and photos on the Web, Facebook, and Twitter, is not as easily analyzed and reported. Nonetheless, companies that specialize in collecting big data are finding better and better ways to gather and make sense of unstructured data.

primary data

information you collect yourself, using hands-on tools such as interviews, surveys, or experiments specifically for the research project you're conducting.

primary data sources:

interviews, surveys, experiments

descriptive research design

involves gathering hard numbers, often via surveys, to describe or measure a phenomenon to answer the questions of who, what, where, when, and how. "On a scale of 1-5, how satisfied were you with your service?" is a question that illustrates the information a descriptive research design is supposed to capture.

artificial intelligence

is the ability of machines and computers to do things commonly associated with intelligent beings, such as the ability to reason, discover meaning, generalize, or learn from past experience. For example, if you spell your friend's name wrong in a text, and your phone corrects it based on the way you have spelled it in the past, you are seeing AI at work. Digital assistants on mobile phones such as Siri (on iPhones) and Cortana (on Windows phones) and Alexa, Amazon's virtual assistant, are also illustrative of how AI is being used.

case study

looks at how another company solved the problem that's being researched. Sometimes multiple cases, or companies, are used in a study. Case studies have a mixed reputation though. Some researchers believe it's hard to generalize, or apply, the results of a case study to other companies. Nonetheless, collecting information about companies that encountered the same problems your firm is facing can give you a certain amount of insight about what direction you should take. In fact, one way to begin a research project is to carefully study the development and successful launch of a new product or service.

physiological measurements

measure people's involuntary physical responses to marketing stimuli, such as an advertisement, to see what they really think about products versus what they say about them.

probability sample

one in which each would-be participant has a known and equal chance of being selected. The chance is known because the total number of people in the sampling frame is known. For example, if every other person from the sampling frame were chosen, each person would have a 50 percent chance of being selected.

convenience sample

one type of nonprobability sample. It is a sample a researcher draws because it's readily available and convenient to do so. Surveying people on the street as they pass by is an example of a convenience sample. The question is, are these people representative of the target market?

syndicated research

primary data marketing research firms collect on a regular basis and sell to other companies that may have an interest in it. J.D. Power is a provider of syndicated research. The company conducts independent, unbiased surveys of customer satisfaction, product quality, and buyer behavior for various industries. The company is best known for its research in the automobile sector.

open ended questions

questions that ask respondents to elaborate upon, or explain, their answers

close ended questions

questions that limit a respondent's answers. multiple choice and yes and no questions are examples of closed ended questions

ethnography

researchers interview, observe, and often record people while they work, live, shop, and play. The Walt Disney Company has used ethnographers to uncover the likes and dislikes of boys aged six to fourteen, a financially attractive market segment for Disney, but one in which the company has been losing market share. The ethnographers visit the homes of boys, observe the things they have in their rooms to get a sense of their hobbies, and accompany them and their mothers when they shop to see where they go, what the boys are interested in, and what they ultimately buy.

dashboards

screens on the computer that make the data easily understood so that managers can detect marketing trends. While a dashboard may display a piece of information, such as the number of railcars of freight sold in West Virginia, a marketing manager can click on the number and get more detail about whether a particular marketing campaign had an effect on freight volumes.

analytics software

software that utilizes a firm's data, regression models, linear programming, and other statistical methods to help managers who are not computer experts make decisions

mystery shopper

someone who is paid to shop at a firm's establishment or one of its competitors to observe the level of service, cleanliness of the facility, and so forth, and report his or her findings to the firm.

population

the entire market being studied

research objective

the goal(s) the research is supposed to accomplish.

sampling frame

the list from which the sample is drawn. The sampling frame can be put together using a directory, customer list, or membership roster. Keep in mind that the sampling frame won't perfectly match the population. Some people will be included on the list who shouldn't be. Other people who should be included will be inadvertently omitted. It's no different than if you were to conduct a survey of, say, 25 percent of your friends, using friends' names you have in your cell phone. Most of your friends' names are likely to be programmed into your phone, but not all of them. As a result, a certain degree of sampling error always occurs.

big data

the massive amount of data being gathered by internet and computer systems today

data cleaning

the process of removing data that have accidentally been duplicated (entered twice into the computer) or correcting data that have obviously been recorded wrong. Microsoft Excel or another statistical program is then used to tabulate, or calculate, the basic results of the research, such as the total number of participants and how collectively they answered various questions. The programs can also be used to calculate averages, such as the average age of respondents, their average satisfaction, and so forth. The same can done for percentages, and other values you learned about, or will learn about, in a statistics course, such as the standard deviation, mean, and median for each question.

research design

your "plan of attack." It outlines what data you are going to gather and from whom, how and when you will collect the data, and how you will analyze it once it's been obtained. Let's look at the data you're going to gather first.