Chapter 4 Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights
Developing Marketing Information
Marketers can obtain the needed information from internal data, marketing intelligence, and marketing research.
examples of descriptive research
What are the demographic characteristics of our customers? What features do buyers prefer in our product? What price will consumer pay?
examples of causal research
Will buyers purchase more of our product in a new package or old package? Which of two advertising campaigns is more effective?
adv of Marketing Intelligence
Advantages Gain insights about consumer opinions and their association with the brand Gain early warnings of competitor strategies, new product launches or changing markets, and potential competitive strengths and weaknesses Disadvantage - May involve ethical issues
Survey Research
Asks people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, buying behavior
Primary data
Information collected for the specific purpose at hand
Marketing Information System (MIS)
Consists of people and procedures to: Assess information needs Develop the needed information Help decision makers to use the information to generate and validate actionable customer and market insights
Online marketing research
Data is collected through: Internet surveys Online focus groups: Focus group interviewing conducted online Web-based experiments Tracking consumers' online behavior
Internal Data
Electronic collections of consumer and market information within a company's network Advantage is information can be accessed quickly and economically. Disadvantages Data ages rapidly and may be incomplete Maintenance and storage of data is expensive
Observational Research
Gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations Ethnographic Research sends trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their natural environments
Secondary Data
Information that already exists Sources: Company's internal database Purchased from outside suppliers Commercial online databases Internet search engines Advantages Can be obtained quickly and at low cost Can provide data that an individual company cannot collect on its own Disadvantages May not get all the data you need Information may not be very usable Relying on the work of others
Contact Methods
Mail, Telephone, Personal Interviews, Online
Customer relationships management (CRM)
Managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty
Research Approaches to gather primary data
Observational Research Survey Research Experimental Research
techniques to get Marketing Intelligence
Observing consumers Consulting the company's own employees Benchmarking competitors' products Researching on the internet Monitoring social media buzz
Experimental Research
Selects matched group of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling related factors, and checking for differences in group responses
Online Behavioral & Social Tracking and Targeting
Online listening Provides the passion and spontaneity of unsolicited consumer opinions Behavioral targeting Uses online consumer tracking to target advertisements and marketing offers to specific consumer Social targeting Mines individual online social connections and conversations from social networking sites
examples of exploratory research
Our sales are declining and we don't know why Would people be interested in our new product concept? Why?
Mechanical instruments include
People meters: attached to tv's, cable boxes, and satellite systems to record who watches which programs Checkout scanners: record shoppers purchases Neuromarketing: measuring brain activity to learn how consumers feel and respond
Research Instruments
Questionnaires can be administered in person, by phone, by e-mail, or online Closed-end questions These questions provide answers that are easier to interpret and tabulate Open-end questions Open-ended questions are especially useful in exploratory research, when the researcher is trying to find out what people think but is not measuring how many people think in a certain way
Decisions required for sampling design:
Sampling unit - People to be studied Sample size - Number of people to be studied Sampling procedure - Method of choosing the people to be studied
Sample: Segment of the population selected to represent the population as a whole
Segment of the population selected to represent the population as a whole
developing the research plan: 2nd Step In marketing process
Specific research approaches Contact methods Sampling plans Instruments that researchers will use to gather new data
Marketing Intelligence
Systematic collection and analysis of information Consumers Competitors Developments in the marketing environment
Marketing Research
Systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data
Big data:
The huge and complex data sets generated by today's sophisticated information generation, collection, storage, and analysis technologies
Public policy and ethics in marketing research
Two major public policy and ethical issues in marketing research are intrusions on consumer privacy and the misuse of research findings.
How to get Marketing Research
Use own research departments Hire outside research specialists Purchase data collected by outside firms
descriptive research
Used to better describe: who will buy (demographic characteristics), what they want (features, style), what are consumer's attitudes about current or new products, where they buy, how much they'll pay, how they make product choices, how big the market is. Use secondary and/or primary data. Get this information with survey
exploratory research
Used to gather preliminary information. Start with secondary data. Helps to define research objectives and suggest hypotheses
causal research
Used to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships
Marketing analytics
consists of analysis tools, technologies, and processes that are used to dig out meaningful patterns in big data to gain customer insights and gauge marketing performance.
customer touch points
customer purchases, sales force contacts, service and support calls, web and social media site visits, satisfaction surveys, credit and payment interactions every contact between a customer and company
marketing research process
defining the problem and research objectives developing the research plan implementing the research plan interpreting and reporting the findings.
types of Marketing Research objectives
exploratory research, descriptive research, and causal research.
Customer insights:
fresh Marketing information-based understandings of customers and the marketplace that become the basis for creating customer value, engagement, and relationships