Intro Marketing Research Exam 1

Standardized Service Firms

(Full Service Supplier Firm) Provide syndicated marketing research services, as opposed to syndicated data, to clients.

Syndicated Data Service firms

(Full Service Supplier Firm) collect information that is made available to multiple subscribers The information is provided in standardized form, not tailored to any one company, to a large number of companies, known as a syndicate

Field service firms

(Limited Service Firms) companies that only collect survey data for corporate clients or research firms. Typically operate in a particular area conducting telephone surveys, focus group interviews, mall-intercept surveys and door-to-door surveys

Customized Service Firms

(full service supplier firms) Offer a variety of research services that are tailored to meet the client's specific needs

Online Research Services Firm

(full service supplier firms) specialize in providing services online.

Two broad classes of standardized information

-Syndicated data -Standardized services

Ethics and Marketing Research

-When disguising the purpose of the research, tell respondents about the existence of disguise at the start of the experiment and allow them to inquire about it at the conclusion of the experiment. -Explaining the purpose and details at the conclusion of the experiment is called debriefing. -The researcher should disclose to the client any problems that arise during the course of the experiment and jointly work out a solution.

Other criticisms of marketing research

1)Not being creative 2)Too much Survey research 3)Not knowing real problem of client 4)Not caring about respondents 5)Not addressing non-response error problem 6)Too high price for iffy research provided

Advantages of Person Administered Surveys

1. Feedback 2. Rapport 3. Quality Control 4. Adaptability

How do internal suppliers organize the research function?

1. Have their own formal departments 2. Have no formal department but place at least a single individual or a committee in charge of marketing research 3. assign no one responsibility for conducting marketing research

Disadvantage of Person Administered Surveys

1. Human Error 2. Slowness 3. Cost 4. Interview Evaluations

Types of test marketing

1. Standard (traditional) test market: - uses the firm's regular channels of distribution in a real market 2. Scanner (electronic) test market: - uses a consumer panel, which is provided scannable cards to record purchases 3. Controlled test markets - uses a select group of distributors and retailers who agree to participate in the experiment 4. Simulated test markets (STMs): conducted in an artificial environment that is made as close as possible to the real marketplace

When is marketing research not needed?

1. The information is already available 2. The timing is wrong to conduct marketing research 3. Funds are not available for marketing research 4. Costs outweigh the value of marketing research

Two types of Focus Groups

1. Traditional Focus Groups 2. Nontraditional Focus group

Marketing Process

1. Understand the marketplace and customer needs and wants 2. Design a customer-driven marketing strategy 3. Construct an integrated marketing program that delivers superior value 4. Build profitable relationships and create customer delight 5. Capture value from customers to create profits and customer equity

11 Steps of the Market Research Process

1. establish the need for marketing research 2. define the problem 3. establish research objectives 4. determine research challenges 5. identify information types and sources 6. determine methods of accessing data 7. design data-collection forms 8. determine the sample plan and size 9. Collect Data 10. analyze data 11. prepare and present the final research process

Disadvantages of Self-Administered Surveys

1. respondent control 2. lack of monitoring 3. high questionnaire requirements

Person-Administered Surveys

A person-administered survey is one in which an interviewer reads questions, either face to face or over the telephone, to the respondent and records the answers

Teleology

Analyzes a particular behavior in terms of its benefits and costs to society. If there are individual costs, but group benefits are greater, then there are net gains and the behavior is judged to be ethical.

Researchers should use more information technology (Challenge in Market Research)

As globalization continues, marketing researchers can add more value by providing the same information faster and at a lower cost. This is why online research has become a significant factor of the research industry

two areas in the marketing industry that seek self improvement

Certification and education

research suppliers

Commercial providers of research services.

Not Hearing the Customer

Complaints about packaging, lack of interest and repeat buyers ex: Coca-Cola Blak, Ice-breakers Pacs

Deontology

Concerned with the rights of the individual. If the rights of the individual are violated, then the behavior is not ethical.

Web-based research

Conducting web-based research as opposed to traditional strategies provides you with the advantage of time, amount of information, access, organization, and instant recording or note taking.

Classification of Descriptive Research Studies

Cross Sectional Studies, Longitiudal Studies

Consumer Cooperation (Challenges in Market Research)

Drops in response rates are echoing the concern from the industry about falling customer cooperation. Many firms are creating panels to offset low response rates Researchers must treat customers ethically to preserve future response rates and combat growing resentment from consumers

Analyze Data

Future Chapters will go into deeper

Advantages of Focus Groups

Generate fresh ideas Allow clients to observe their participants May be directed at understanding a wide variety of issues Allow fairly easy access to special respondent groups

Treating Others Fairly: Suppliers

Having collected several requests for proposals which outline research designs and costs, the abusing firm decides to do the job internally. Issuing a call for proposals from external firms with no intention of doing the job outside is unethical behavior.

Uses of Marketing Research

It can be used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems. (generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve understanding of marketing as a process.)

Marketing research operates in a "silo" (Challenge In Market research)

Marketing research fails to communicate with other entities within the firm. Marketing research could add value to other departments as well, but it must break down the "silos"

Treating Others Fairly: Respondents

Marketing researchers must honor promises made to respondents that the respondent's identity will remain confidential or anonymous if they expect respondents to cooperate with requests for information in the future

Two types of metric questions

Natural Metric and Synthetic metric format

Metric

Number needs to be provided in their response

Treating Others Fairly: Failure to Honor Time and Money Agreements

Often buyer firms have obligations such as agreeing to meetings or the provisions of materials needed for the research project. Buyer firms sometimes abuse their agreements.

Types of questions:

Open-ended Categorical Metric

Treating Others Fairly: Buyers

Passing hidden charges to buyers, overlooking study requirements when subcontracting work out to other supplier firms, and selling unnecessary research are examples of unfair treatment of buyer firms

Four Ps of Marketing

Product, Price, Place, Promotion

Categorical

Provides options on questionnaire. Researchers know what they might choose Dual and Multiple choice

Longitudinal studies

Repeatedly measure the same sample units of a population over time. Often make use of a panel which represents sample units who have agreed to answer questions at periodic intervals.

establish research objectives

Research objectives tell the researcher exactly how to obtain the information necessary to allow the manager to choose between the decision alternatives • Research objectives are totally dependent on the problem but they are different in that they state what the researcher must do • Research objectives state specifically what information must be produced by the researcher so that the manager can choose the correct decision alternative to solve the problem • When achieved, they provide the necessary information to solve the problem at hand.

Quantitative Research

Research that provides data that can be expressed with numbers, such as ranks or scales.

Marketing Research is Parochial (Challenges in Market Research)

Several critics of marketing research believe it is too parochial; it is isolated with a narrow focus. Too often, marketing research reports to lower levels of the firm and is not part of the strategic planning process

Identify Information Types and Sources

Since research provides information to help solve problems, researchers must identify the type and sources of information they will use in step 5 ie: Primary information, Secondary information

Marketing research no longer represents the "voice of the consumer"(Challenges in Market Research)

Some believe that lower prices will move consumers meaning the former role of understanding consumers in marketing is declining. Marketing is now being viewed as an "after the fact" promotional tool to move goods, therefore no longer including consumers in the process

Marketing Research is too Tool Oriented (Challenge in Market research)

Some criticize that market researchers create tools and instead of trying to diagnose the market and come up with creative solutions, they screen through issues until they find one which they can apply one of their tools

Treating Others Fairly: The Public

Sometimes researchers are asked to do research on products thought to be dangerous to society. Marketing researchers have expressed concern over conducting research on advertising to children

advantages of computer administrated survey

Speed Error-free interviews Pictures, Videos, and Graphics Real-time capture of data reduction of anxieties caused by interview evaluation

Hearing the Consumer

Successful firms make sure that they have the information they need to effectively satisfy wants and needs in the marketplace

The first organized Marketing Research?

The first continuous and organized marketing research in 1911 for the Curtis Publishing Company The purpose was to increase advertising for the First Saturday Post Magazine Conducted by Charles Coolidge Parlin

disadvantages of mixed-mode surveys

The important disadvantage of using mixed-mode, or hybrid, data collection methods is that complexity will increase

The Need for Marketing Research

The industrial Revolution led to manufacturers producing goods for distant markets Manufacturers needed to know about far customers

Marketing Research

The process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem

Market Research

The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about a specific issue, situation, or concern that affects a market

Online Research

The use of computer networks, including the Internet, to assist in any phase of the marketing research process, including development of the problem, research design, data gathering, analysis, and report distribution

How do eternal suppliers organize?

They organize themselves by function, (data analysis, data collection, etc), by type of research application (customer satisfaction, advertising effectiveness, new-product development, etc), by geography (domestic versus international), by type of customer (health care, government, telecommunications, etc) or another combo

Determining Methods of Accessing Data

When a researcher must communicate with respondents, there are four main choices of accessing data: • Have a person ask questions • Use computer assisted questioning • Allow respondents to answer questions themselves without computer assistance • Use a combination of the above three methods

Issues in the Economy (Challenges in Market Research)

With the return to a vibrant economy years away, surviving marketing research firms will have to demonstrate value added by their services more than ever

Marketing Concept

a business philosophy that holds the key to achieving organizational goals consists of the company's being more effective that competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets.

mall intercept

a method of data collection in which interviewers in a shopping mall stop or interrupt a sample of those passing by to ask them if they would be willing to participate in a research study

Natural Metric

a number that is appropriate for the property being measured, such as age, number of visits, dollars, etc.

Determine Research Design

a set of advanced decisions that makes up the master plan specifying the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information. • There are three widely recognized research designs:• Exploratory• Descriptive• Causal

Marketing Intelligence System

a set of procedures and sources used by managers to obtain everyday information about pertinent developments in the environment

Marketing Information System

a structure consisting of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely, and accurate information to marketing decision makers

Standardized information

a type of secondary data in which the data collected and/or the process of collecting data are standardized for all users.

Synthetic metric format

an artificial number to measure the property, such as a measure of satisfaction using a scale of 1 to 10

Internal Suppliers

an entity within the firm supplies marketing research examples of these are Kraft Foods, IBM, Kodak

How Marketing research departments are usually organized according to one or a combination of the following functions

area of application, marketing function, or the research process.

basic research

conducted to expand our knowledge rather than to solve a specific problem

marketing decision support system (MDSS)

customized computer software that aids marketing managers in decision making. Once companies collect large amounts of information, they store this information in huge databases that, when accessed with decision making tools and techniques ....

Environmental Studies Test

find opportunities to identify problems with an existing strategy

Frugging

fund raising under the guise of research does not involve the sale of a product or service, it is not covered in the Telemarketing and Consumer Fraud and Abuse Prevention Act of 1994, but it is widely considered to be unethical

Internal Reports System

gathers information generated within a firm, including orders, billing, receivables, inventory levels, stockouts, and so on. Other information is collected, such as inventory records, sales calls records, and orders.

Marketing Research System

gathers information not gathered by the other MIS component subsystems

Full-service supplier firms

have the ability to conduct the entire marketing research project.

Secondary Information

information already collected

Primary Information

information collected specifically for the problem at hand

Projective Techniques

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.

Qualitative Research

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

Pretesting Surveys

involves conducting a dry run of the survey on a small, representative set of respondents in order to reveal questionnaire errors before the survey is launched. It is important to ________ on respondents that are representative of the target population to be studied

American Community Survey

may represent the most significant change in the availability of secondary data to be used for marketing research purposes in several decades. The primary advantage is that the ACS will provide data annually instead of once every ten years. Since these data will have the U.S. Census Bureau's "high marks" for reliable data and will be current, the ACS is likely to become a major secondary data resource for marketing researchers.

CGM in Standardized information

measuring customers attitude, defining market segments, conducting marketing tracking studies, monitoring media usage and promotion effectiveness

computer administered survey

one in which computer technology plays an essential role in the interview work, often, but not always, completely eliminating the need for a personal interviewer

Question Response Formats

open-ended, categorical and metric

External Suppliers

outside firms hired to fulfill a company's marketing research needs

Research Integrity

performing research that adheres to accepted standards, may take the form of: Withholding information, Falsifying data, Altering research results. Misinterpreting the research findings in a way that makes them more consistent with predetermined points of view

prepare and present the final research report

preparing and presenting the marketing research report is very important because, often, this is the only record of the research project for the client.

customer oriented philosophy

puts the customer first

Advantages of Self-Administered Surveys

reduced cost, respondent control, reduced interview evaluation apprehension

Online survey research

refers to the collection of data using computer networks

Coding questions

refers to the use of numbers associated with question response options to facilitate data analysis after the survey has been conducted

applied research

represents the vast majority of marketing research studies

disadvantages of computer administrated survey

required some level of technical skill Cost may be significant

Advantages of Mixed-Mode Surveys

researchers are able to use the disadvantages of each of the various modes to achieve a better data collection result

Sugging

selling under the guise of research occurs when a "researcher" gains a respondent's cooperation to participate in a research study and then uses the opportunity to attempt to sell the respondent a good or service

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.

Mixed-Mode Surveys

sometimes referred to as hybrid surveys, use multiple data collection modes It has become increasingly popular because in recent years due to efficiencies of computer-administered methods and the communication preferences of respondents

Limited-service supplier firms

specialize in one or, at most, a few marketing research activities

Marketing Strategy

the activities of selecting and describing one or more target markets and developing and maintaining a marketing mix that will produce mutually satisfying exchanges with target markets

Test Marketing

the phrase commonly used to indicate an experiment, study, or test that is conducted in a field setting

Marketing

the process by which companies create value for customers and build strong customer relationships in order to capture value from customers in return

Self-Administered Surveys

the respondent completes the survey on his or her own; no human or computer agent administers the interview

Purpose of Marketing Research

to link the consumer to the marketer by providing information that can be used in making marketing decisions

Open-ended

want them to respond in their own words. Used when researcher is unaware of how the respondent will describe something. Most Useful in exploratory research Unaided and aided

question evaluation-bias

wording of a question that makes people respond a certain way that you want them to

Determine Sample Plan and Size

• A population consists of the entire group that the researcher wishes to make inferences about based upon information provided by the sample data • A sample is a subset of the population. Sample plans describe how each sample element, or unit, is to be drawn from the total population. • The size of the sample determines how accurately your sample results reflect values in the population.

The Marketing Research Process: Words of Caution

• An 11 step process: there is nothing sacred about 11 steps • Not all studies use every step • Few studies follow the steps in order

Exploratory Research

• As the name implies, exploratory research is a form of casual, informal research that is undertaken to learn more about the research problem, learn terms and definitions, or identify research opportunities

Casual

• Attempts to uncover what factors cause some event. • Will a change in the package size of our detergent cause a change in our sales? Causality may be thought of as understanding a phenomenon in terms of conditional statements of the form "If x, then y."

Descriptive

• Describes the phenomena of interest. • A marketing executive who wants to know what types of people buy the company's brand needs a study to describe the demographic profile of heavy users of the company brand

Disadvantages of Focus Groups

• Do not constitute representative samples • Difficult to interpret the results of the focus group Cost per participant is high, though the total spent on focus group research is generally a fraction of what may be spent on quantitative research

Define the Problem

• This is the most important of the 11 steps, if the problem is incorrectly defined, all else is wasted effort. • The problem can be viewed as a statement of decision alternatives • If there are no alternatives, no decision is necessary • We define problems as situations calling for managers to make choices among alternatives. When managers make decisions, they have a problem • As an example, managers must choose among alternatives to select new products, choose among advertising copy alternatives, determine price of their products or services, select dealers and so on.

Establish the need for marketing research

• When managers try to make decisions with inadequate information, this signals the need for marketing research• The need for marketing research is affected by company policy:• Not conducting marketing research• Conducting different types of studies on a continuous basis at specified intervals• Certain types of studies being used whenever in a particular situation occurs• To conduct marketing research on an "as needed" basis• Management may also show a preference for a type of marketing research, i.e. focus groups

Design Data Collection Forms

• Will the questions asked generate answers that satisfy the research objectives and ultimately solve the "problem"? • Questionnaire must be worded objectively, clearly, and without bias in order to communicate with respondents.

Collect Data

•Errors in collecting data may be attributed to fieldworkers or respondents and they may be either intentional or unintentional. •What is important is that the researcher knows the sources of these errors and implements controls to minimize them