Marketing Research Quiz Review

What are some of the ways that market research is used?

- Helps Identify market opportunities or problems For example, opportunity for development of hybrid cars to combat high gas prices; or the case of Porter airlines - identify target markets (size, needs etc.) - product research (idea generation, product testing) - pricing research - promotion and advertising research - Marketing mix (distribution) research e.g., What is appropriate marketing mix to reach audience - monitor marketing performance (sales, brand imaging etc) - customer satisfaction studies

In order to market, managers must......

- Managers must make decisions. To make the "right" decisions, the following kind of information is needed: - objective - accurate - timely

Qualitative Research

- Not subject to quantification - Small samples - Interviews - Dyads - Focus groups - Message boards - Ethnography

Definition and types of qualitative research

- Research involving collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data by observing what people do and say - Findings are not subject to quantification Types of research: Focus groups Interviews Message boards Ethnography Mystery shopping - Can be used on its own or in combination of Quantitative research

Types of firms in the marketing research industry:

- Research suppliers - Internal Suppliers External suppliers: - ltd. service suppliers - full service suppliers

When is marketing research NOT needed?

- The information is already available. - Decisions must be made now. - We can't afford research. - Costs outweigh the value of marketing research.

Choosing a survey method is influenced by what?

- Time available for data collection - Money available for data collection - Type of respondent interaction required (such as sampling a product, viewing an ad, etc.) Incident rate (i.e., who qualifies) Cultural/infrastructure considerations: - lower rates of high-speed internet in rural communities, higher rates of household only cell phones in urban centres

Quantitative Research

- Use stats/math analysis - Large samples Typically surveys -Telephone -Online -Mail -Intercepts

A picture is considered to be.....

A picture is considered to be personal identifiable information Cannot be shared with a client without permission or needs to be anonymized (e.g., pixelate faces)

To email people, you need to have:

A pre-existing relationship Ability to be removed from further email contact Exclude people who have asked to be removed

What are surveys?

A survey involves interviews with a large number of respondents using a predesigned questionnaire

Mail survey Advantages

Advantages: - Complete at leisure - Can reach hard to reach populations - Good for reaching clients or customers - Some controls over response rate - Detailed responses - Privacy

Mystery Shopping advantages and disadvantages

Advantages: - Records actual behaviors, rather than reported behaviors Occurs in natural environment Disadvantages: - Can be very expensive - Experience of shopper may dictate behaviors (e.g., overacting) - Requires interpretation of reason for behaviors

Advantages and Disadvantages of Face-to-face surveys

Advantages: - feedback - Rapport - Quality control - Adaptability Disadvantages: - Rarely used anymore - Very expensive - Takes a long time - Interviewer bias and effects

Ethnography Advantages and disadvantages

Advantages: Reduces in accuracy of participants' having to recall behaviors See behaviors that may never be reported or remembered Done in natural environment (i.e., organic behaviors) Better accuracy of behaviors Disadvantages: Can be very expensive May not exhibit all behaviors during recording May exhibit unnatural or artificial behaviors if being watched May not be able to get at reasons for behaviors without other qualitative techniques

Advantages and Disadvantages of Telephone surveys

Advantages: - Fast turnaround - Good quality control - Feedback - Rapport Disadvantages: - Can take a long time - Hard to reach some populations - Growing cell phone only households

Principle 4: Accuracy

Avoid conducting research and report results that would be inaccurate or misleading.

2 Types of Marketing Research processes

Basic Research: - e.g., basic research may be research into the cognitive or psychological factors related to how long people will wait for products or services Applied Research - e.g., Applied research is to solve a specific problem for a specific industry or company

Focus group limitations

Cannot extrapolate results to population - Is only representative of those participating in the group Interpretation sometimes difficult - Hear different things between groups High cost per participant

Research with children and youth guidelines:

Children defined as under 14 Youth defined as 14 to 17 Parental consent is always required for conducting research with children, regardless of type of research Recommends parental consent when conducting research with youth, for subjects where "special care is needed" Parental consent can be verbal or written - Written consent is recommended for legal reasons

When to use Quantitative:

Compare results over time Extrapolate to larger population Quantify results Confirm information about a population

What is CATI?

Computer-Administered Telephone Interviewing: - CATI is software that allows interviewers to enter information directly into survey - Computer eliminates human interviewer error - Simultaneous data input to computer file - Good quality control

Computer-assisted telephone surveys

Computer-assisted: computer technology plays an essential role in the interview work, but is not doing the surveying

Principle #1: Consent

Contact with members of the public is at all times to be undertaken with their consent and with observance of their right to withdraw at any time.

Step 10: Analyze Data; what is data analysis? Data cleaning?

Data analysis involves entering data into computer files, inspecting data for errors, and running tabulations and various statistical tests. Data cleaning is a process by which raw data are checked to verify that the data have been correctly inputted from the data collection form to the computer software program.

Step 9: Collect Data

Data collection is very important because, regardless of the data analysis methods used, data analysis cannot fix bad data. Nonsampling errors may occur during data collection. Data collection errors may be attributed to field workers or respondents. Researchers must know the sources of these errors and the controls to minimize them

Does data require consent?

Data needs to be collected with consent and must be anonymized

Mobile Research: Cannot install app that...

Delivers advertising content, with the exception of testing advertising Collect information for non-research purposes Install upgrades/software without consent or that is hidden

Mail survey Disadvantages

Disadvantage: - Generally not appropriate for large-scale national survey - Can be very expensive - No variation in costs between suppliers - Take a long time - Cannot use complicated skips - No control over responses

Online Surveys disadvantages

Disadvantage: - Respondent must have access to the Internet - Technical skills required - High set-up costs - No clarification with interviewer - Cannot guarantee response rates - Often has increased drop-off rates

Mixed Mode Survey Disadvantages:

Disadvantages: - Mode affects response? Are they comparable? - Additional complexity to manage

Sample Design Error and the three types:

Error in sample design or procedures 3 types: - Frame Error occurs when the sample is not complete E.g., using only listed telephone numbers - Population Specification Error is incorrect definition of the population from which to sample e.g.,, want to survey people who watch TV, but not specify that it needs to be cable TV - Selection Error improper sample selection e.g., In mall intercept survey, avoiding people with children.

Measurement Error and three types of it:

Error that results from variation between information research wants and what is actually obtained. Interviewer error results from interviewers influencing respondents, either consciously or unconsciously. Measurement Instrument Bias results from problems with questions (e.g., leading). Processing error are errors made by humans in analysis or data entry.

Step Four: Determine Research Design Define: Exploratory, Descriptive, Diagnostic, Prescriptive and Casual Research

Exploratory Research: collecting information in an unstructured and informal manner. Descriptive Research describes information - Diagnostic research identifies sources - Prescriptive research identifies how to fix Causal Research (experiments): allows isolation of causes and effects.

What are 4 methods of surveys?

Four basic survey methods: - Person-administered surveys - Computer-assisted surveys - Self-administered surveys - Mixed-mode (hybrid) surveys

Ethnography

In marketing research, it is primarily recording information about people in their natural environment Examples of ethnography: - Watching people's eating and cooking habits in their home - Product test in actual environment - Watching people's shopping habits in store

Types of Face-to-face Surveys:

In-home surveys: - Primary administration method for many years - Conducted in the privacy of the home - Still done with some populations, such as elderly Mall-intercept survey - Ask shoppers to participate in survey - Usually short and require incentive - Only mall patrons are interviewed - Respondents may feel uncomfortable answering the questions in the mall In-Office (Executive) Interview - Usually conducted for B2B research (Business to Business) - Useful for interviewing executives or when related to work - Online surveys and qualitative interviews becoming more common in this area - Relatively high cost per interview - Gaining access is sometimes difficult

Step 1: Establish the Need for Marketing Research

Is there a real need for marketing research? - Research takes time and costs money. - Value of information v. Cost of information? Marketing research is not always needed. We often have the information

What is marketing research?

Marketing research is the process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem.

Principle 8: Competency

Members agree to uphold high standards of general competency in the design, execution, analysis, reporting, interpretation and consulting phases of all research.

Principle 10: Professionalism

Members commit themselves to the goal of seeking to continuously improve themselves in their chosen profession.

Principle 7: Lawfulness

Members in their conduct of research shall abide by the prevailing provincial, national and international legislation which applies to the research they conduct.

Principle 5: Ethical Practice

Members shall at all times act honestly, ethically and fairly in their dealings with all members of the public, clients, employers, subcontractors and each other. They will refrain from activities which show disrespect or otherwise unjustifiably demean, criticize or disparage others.

Principle 6: Client Rights

Members shall protect the interests of their clients and clients' rights to confidentiality. Members shall ensure that records of research will be held for the appropriate periods and that these will be protected from theft, misuse and inadvertent destruction.

Principle 2: Public Confidence

Members should act in a manner that serves to promote and augment, not diminish the confidence of the public in research in general.

Principle 9: Familiarity

Members will undertake to keep themselves, their co-workers and clients informed about the code of conduct to avoid breaches of it, and will undertake also to inform themselves of any recent changes made by accessing, where necessary, such sources as the MRIA website or other material.

Qualitative Research Guidelines:

Mention issues of confidentiality - Recordings, viewers, mirrors, etc. Client supplied lists must not be used for other projects Need consent for anyone under 18

What are mixed mode surveys?

Mixed mode (or hybrid) surveys, are a combination of two or more methods for surveying Advantages: - Multiple advantages to achieve data collection goal Example: May use online surveys to quickly reach portion of population with Internet access and may use telephone calling to reach those without Internet access.

Online Surveys and their advantages

Most frequently used and most $ spent on research Advantages: - Ease of creating and posting - Fast turnaround - Computer data file results - Speed - Use of pictures, videos, and graphics - Real-time capture of data - Reduction of "interview evaluation" concern - Respondents control pace of survey - Fuller verbatims

Mystery shopping

Mystery shopping gathers information about: A company's or competitors' product or service When shopping for a company, used to: Measure quality of service Identify areas for customer service improvement Identify areas for product improvement Enhance employee training Reward employees When shopping at a competitor, used to: Understand customer service techniques Enhance knowledge of competitor's approaches Improve company's products or services

Face-to-face surveys

Person-administered: an interviewer reads questions face-to-face to the respondent and records his or her answers

Qualitative research advantages and disadvantages

Popular form of research because: - They are often less costly, - Better at understanding motivators - Improves quantitative research Disadvantages: - Small samples means inability to detect differences between groups - Not representative of population - Researchers often lack formal training

Step 5: Identify Information Types and Sources

Primary information: information collected specifically for the problem at hand Secondary information: information already collected

2 types of research:

Quantitative and Qualitative Research

Step 7: Design Data Collection Forms

Questionnaire must be worded objectively, clearly, and without bias in order to communicate with respondents

2 Types of Error in surveys:

Random Error: - results from chance variation and occurs in all studies. Can decrease with larger samples. Systematic Error: - results from problems in execution of research design. - controlled by researcher. - has two components: Sample Design Error and Measurement Error.

Defining objectives

Research objectives need to be as specific as possible Need to ensure they are objectives for the research and not objectives for the corporation (or what will be done with the research) Research objectives are often framed as questions e.g., What segment of the population is most likely to use our product? e.g., In what situations might a Coca-Cola user purchase Pepsi?

Step 3: Establish Objectives

Research objectives, when achieved, provide the information necessary to solve the problem identified in step 2. Research objectives state what the researchers must do.

Step 8: Determine Sample Plan and Size

Sample plan refers to the process used to select units from the population to be included in the sample. Gives you representativeness! Sample size refers to determining how many elements of the population should be included in the sample. Gives you accuracy!

Differences between Quantitative and Qualitative

See Lesson 1 - slide 3

Self-administered Survey

Self-administered: the respondent completes the survey on his or her own - Traditional "paper & pencil" survey Several types: - Online - Mail - Telephone

Advantages of Surveys

Standardization - Identical wording; presented in order - Ease of administration - Large samples - Extrapolate to larger populations - Suitability to tabulation and statistical analysis - Sensitivity to subgroup differences

11 Steps of the marketing research process:

Step 1: Establish the Need for Marketing Research Step 2: Define the Problem Step 3: Establish Objectives Step Four: Determine Research Design Step 5: Identify Information Types and Sources Step 6: Determine Methods of Accessing Data Step 7: Design Data Collection Forms Step 8: Determine Sample Plan and Size Step 9: Collect Data Step 10: Analyze Data Step 11: Prepare and Present the Final Research Report

Step 11: Prepare and Present the Final Research Report

The last step is one of the most important phases of marketing research. Its importance cannot be overstated because it is the report, or its presentation, that properly communicates the results to the client.

Principle 3: Public's Right to Privacy

The use of research data should extend only to those purposes for which consent was received. The public's desire for privacy and anonymity is to be respected.

MRIA's 10 guiding principles for research (no particular order)

These are meant as a general overview for conducting ethical research Principles 1-10: - Consent - public confidence - public's right to privacy - accuracy - ethical practice - client rights - lawfulness - competency - familiarity - professionalism

Step 2: Define the Problem

This is the most important of the 11 steps (assuming we've decided to do marketing research!) - If the problem is incorrectly defined, all else is wasted effort. Example, choosing the right recipe for a new burger. - Problems may be either specific or general.

Step 6: Determine Methods of Accessing Data (3 main choices for primary data)

Three main choices for primary data: - Have a person ask questions - Use computer-assisted or direct questioning - Allow respondents to answer questions themselves without computer assistance

When to use focus Groups

To generate new ideas e.g., New products, New services, New messaging To understand reasons for behaviors and attitudes When interaction and discussion between people may be important For exploratory research

Traditional Focus Groups

Traditional: - In focus group facility - Viewers behind one-way mirror - Audio and/or video-recording - Most common

Internet Research: 3 principles

Treated with respect Sensitive to concerns Maintain difference between research and commercial activities

Focus Groups

Typically consists of about 10 participants lead in a discussion by a moderator Conducted in a facility with a one-way mirror Microphones used to record information Most popular form of qualitative research and used most often Purpose is generate discussion and thought among participants

When to use Qualitative:

Understand motivators Explore feelings Present complicated information Test ideas or messaging

When are interviews used?

Used when: - May be difficult to gather people together at one time - Participants' experiences may be very different - May not be appropriate for participants to hear what others have to say

What defines quantitative research?

When numbers, percentages, dollars, etc. are reported, you are conducting quantitative research Quantitative research is best used when you want to know something about a population Quantitative is typically survey research, but can include: Internal data, sales information, Census information, social media research, etc.

What are internal suppliers? what are their methods of organization?

an entity within the firm supplies marketing research they have their own formal departments which are organized around: - Marketing function: ad research, product research, pricing research, channel... - Research process: data analysis, data collection...etc.

Self-Administered Surveys disadvantages

disadvantages: - Respondent controls the survey; do not send in on time, do not send in! - Lack of monitoring: no one to explain or encourage respondents - Questionnaire must be perfect

What are external suppliers? What are their methods of organization?

outside firms hired to fulfill a firm's marketing research needs Methods of Organization: - Function: data analysis & collection... - Type of research application: ad research... - Geography: domestic, international... - Types of customers, finance, health Or a Combination of the above

What are some challenges to marketing research?

research takes too long, costs too much, or does not provide proper research