Marketing Chapter 4

Marketing Research

Definition: the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. Process: 1. Defining the problem and research objectives 2. Developing the research plan for collecting information 3. Implementing the research plan - collecting and analyzing data. 4. Interpreting and reporting the findings

Ethnographic research

a primary research that requires observational research that involves sending trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their "natural environments."

Sample

a segment of the population selected for marketing research to represent the population as a whole.

Internal databases

electronic collections of consumer and market information obtained from data sources within the company network

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty. These touch points include customer purchases, sales force contacts, service and support calls, online site visits, satisfaction surveys, credit and payment interactions, market research studies.

customer insights

fresh understandings of customers and the marketplace derived from marketing information that become the basis for creating customer value and relationships

Observational research

gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations

Online focus groups

gathering a small group of people online with a trained moderator to chat about a product, service, or organization and gain qualitative insights about a consumer attitudes and behavior.

Survey research

gathering primary data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior.

Online marketing research

collecting primary data online through internet surveys, online focus groups, web-based experiments, or tracking consumers' online behavior.

Experimental Research

gathering primary data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses. It also tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships. for example before adding a new sandwich to its menu, McDonald's might test the effects on sales of two different prices it might charge. It could introduce the new sandwich at one price in one city and at another price in another city. If the cities are similar, and if all other marketing efforts for the sandwich are the same, then differences in sales in the two cities could be related to the price charged.

Primary data

information collected for the specific purpose at hand.

Secondary data

information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.

Descriptive Research

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

Exploratory Research

marketing research to gather preliminary information that will help define problems and suggest hypotheses

Casual Research

marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships

Marketing Information System (MIS)

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

Focus group interviewing

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 issue.

Competitive Marketing Intelligence

the systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketplace. the goal of this systematic collection is to improve strategic decision making by understanding the consumer environment, assessing and tracking competitors' actions, and providing early warnings of opportunities and threats. these techniques range from observing consumers firsthand to quizzing the company's own employees, bench marking competitors' products, researching on the internet, and monitoring social media buzz.

Behavioral targeting

using online consumer tracking data to target advertisements and marketing offers to specific consumers.

Marketing research can be conducted effectively by small businesses and nonprofit organizations with limited budgets. International marketing researchers follow the same steps as domestic research but often face more and different problems. All organizations need to act responsibly concerning major public policy and ethical issues surrounding marketing research, including issues of intrusions on consumer privacy and misuse of research findings.

Discuss the special issues some marketing researchers face, including public policy and ethic issues. (pg 120 - 124)