Marketing 300-Chapter 4 (Market Research)

In the research objectives, what does exploratory research do?

It helps define the problem. Exploratory research gathers preliminary information and suggests hypotheses. It also helps shape the research design.

In the research objectives, what does descriptive research do?

It seeks to better describe marketing problems, situations, or markets, such as the market potential for a product or the attitudes of consumers.

In the research objectives, what does causal research do?

It's marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

What is competitive marketing intelligence?

It's the systemic monitoring collection, and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketplace.

Describe a judgement sample

The researcher uses his or her judgement to select population members who are good prospects for accurate information.

What are stored on companies' internal databases and what are their benefits?

They hold collections of consumer & market information obtained from data sources within the company's network. They're easily accessed, but possibly incomplete or wrong.

What is the Marketing Research Process?

1) Define the problem (hypothesis) 2) Develop the research plan for collecting information 3) Implement the research plan (collect and analyze the data) 4) Interpreting and reporting the findings.

What is the Overconfidence Effect?

A bias in which someone's subjective confidence in their judgements is reliably greater than their objective accuracy, especially when confidence is relatively high.

Describe a convenience sample

A convenience sample is when the researcher selects the easiest population members from which to obtain information.

What are Focus Groups?

A form of getting primary data. A form of personal interviewing that involves inviting 6-10 people to gather for a few hours with a trained interviewer to talk about a product, service, or organization. The interviewer "focuses" the group discussion on important issues.

What is Observational Research?

A form of primary data. Observational research involves gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations. Not only observing what customers do, but also what customers are SAYING.

Describe a quota sample

A quota sample is when the researcher finds and interviews a prescribed number of people in each of several categories.

Describe a simple random sample.

A simple random sample is when every member of the population has a known and equal chance of selection.

Describe a stratified random sample.

A stratified random sample is divided into naturally exclusive groups (such as age groups), and random samples are drawn from each group.

What is a Confirmation Bias?

A tendency for people to focus on and favor information that confirms their preconceptions.

What is Survey Research?

A widely-used form of primary data. Gathers DESCRIPTIVE information. Survey research gathers data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.

What constitutes a Research Plan?

Determining the exact information needed (primary data vs. secondary data, qualitative data vs. quantitative data), develop a plan for gathering it efficiently (methods), and present a plan to management.

What is Market Research?

Marketing Research is the systematic monitoring, collection, and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketplace.

What sources of primary/secondary data can be classified as qualitative data?

Observations, ethnography, interviews, interviewing, group interviewing, and online-behavior tracking.

What are some examples of primary data and the advantages/disadvantages of primary data?

Observations, surveys, experiments. Often necessary to answer specific research questions.

What are some examples of secondary data and the advantages/disadvantages of secondary data?

Outside data suppliers, commercial online databases, internet search engines. Secondary data is fast and cheap, but is usually incomplete. Has to be checked for relevancy, currency, and impartiality.

What are Marketing Information Systems (MIS)?

People and procedures dedicated to assessing information needs, developing the needed information, and helping decision makers to use the information to generate and validate actionable customer and market insights.

What is an Availability Bias?

People predict the frequency of an event, or a proportion within a population, based on how easily an example comes to mind.

What is a False Consensus?

People's tendencies to overestimate how much other people agree with them.

What are the differences between primary data and secondary data?

Primary data consists of information collected for the specific purpose at hand whereas secondary data consists of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.

What sources of primary/secondary data can be classified as qualitative data?

Surveys, experimental data.

Describe a cluster (area) sample

The population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such as blocks), and the researcher draws a sample of the groups to interview.

When is it appropriate to conduct marketing research?

When there's enough time, sufficient data, the decision is significant, and the values outweigh the costs.