Ch.4 Managing Marketing Information to Gain Customer Insights

Ethnographic research

A form of observational research that involves sending trained observers to watch and interact with consumers in their "natural environments -For example, P&G uses extensive ethnographic research to gain deep insights into serving the world's poor. Three years ago, P&G launched the "$2-a-Day Project," named for the average income of the people it targets worldwide

Customer insights

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

Survey research

Gathering primary data by asking people questions about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and buying behavior. -The major advantage of survey research is its flexibility; it can be used to obtain many different kinds of information in many different situations -Surveys addressing almost any marketing question or decision can be conducted by phone or mail, in person, or online -Sometimes people are unable to answer survey questions because they cannot remember or have never thought about what they do and why they do it -People may be unwilling to respond to unknown interviewers or about things they consider private

Observational research

Gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations. -For example, food retailer Trader Joe's might evaluate possible new store locations by checking traffic patterns, neighborhood conditions, and the locations of competing Whole Foods, Fresh Market, and other retail chains

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. -For example, before adding a new sandwich to its menu, McDonald's might use experiments to test the effects on sales of two different prices it might charge

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.

Causal research

Marketing research to test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

Failure to address privacy issues could result in

angry, less cooperative consumers and increased government intervention

Cross-sectional and longitudinal studies are types of research known as ________.

descriptive

Primary research, such as focus groups and interviews, is also known as ________.

exploratory research

The research plan should be presented

in a written proposal

Marketers can obtain the needed information from

internal data, marketing intelligence, and marketing research.

Individual interviewing

involves talking with people in their homes or offices, on the street, or in shopping malls. Such interviewing is flexible.

When probability sampling costs too much or takes too much time, marketing researchers often take

nonprobability samples, even though their sampling error cannot be measured

Personal interviewing

takes two forms: individual interviewing and group interviewing

Designing the sample requires three decisions:

-First, who is to be studied (what sampling unit)? -Second, how many people should be included (what sample size)? -Finally, how should the people in the sample be chosen (what sampling procedure)?

The marketing research process:

1) defining the problem and research objectives 2)developing the research plan 3) Implementing the research plan 4) Interpreting and reporting the findings

In collecting primary data, marketing researchers have a choice of two main research instruments:

1) questionnaires 2) mechanical instruments

Sample

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

Online marketing research

Collecting primary data online through Internet surveys, online focus groups, Web-based experiments, or tracking consumers' online behavior.

Internal databases

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

Contact Methods

Information can be collected by mail, telephone, personal interview, or online

Primary data

Information collected for the specific purpose at hand.

Secondary data

Information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose. -Secondary data can usually be obtained more quickly and at a lower cost than primary data -Secondary sources can sometimes provide data an individual company cannot collect on its own—information that either is not directly available or would be too expensive to collect

Customer Relationship Management (CRM)

Managing detailed information about individual customers and carefully managing customer touch points to maximize customer loyalty. -CRM analysts develop data warehouses and use sophisticated data mining techniques to unearth the riches hidden in customer data

Marketing Information System (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. -A good MIS balances the information users would like to have against what they really need and what is feasible to offer. -The MIS must monitor the market- ing environment to provide decision makers with information they should have to better understand customers and make key marketing decisions.

Focus group interviewing

Personal interviewing that involves inviting 6 to 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.

________ data consist of information collected for the specific purpose at hand.

Primary

________ data consist of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.

Secondary

Competitive marketing intelligence

The systematic collection and analysis of publicly available information about consumers, competitors, and developments in the marketing environment. - Good marketing intelligence can help marketers gain insights into how consumers talk about and connect with their brands - Firms use competitive marketing intelligence to gain early warnings of competitor moves and strategies, new product launches, new or changing markets, and potential competitive strengths and weaknesses.

Marketing research

The systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization. -For example, marketing research gives mar- keters insights into customer motivations, purchase behavior, and satisfaction. - It can help them to assess market potential and market share or measure the effectiveness of pricing, product, distribution, and promotion activities.

Behavioral targeting

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

Mail questionnaires

can be used to collect large amounts of information at a low cost per respondent -Respondents may give more honest answers to more personal questions on a mail questionnaire than to an unknown interviewer in person or over the phone -Mail questionnaires are not very flexible; all respondents answer the same questions in a fixed order -Telephone interviewing is one of the best methods for gathering information quickly, and it provides greater flexibility than mail questionnaires. -Interviewers can explain dif- ficult questions and, depending on the answers they receive, skip some questions or probe on others. Response rates tend to be higher than with mail questionnaires, and interviewers can ask to speak to respondents with the desired characteristics or even by name. - Telephone interviewing, the cost per respondent is higher than with mail or online questionnaires. Also, people may not want to discuss personal questions with an interviewer.

Group interviewing

consists of inviting 6 to 10 people to meet with a trained moderator to talk about a product, service, or organization

Internet search engines can also be a big help in

locating relevant secondary information sources

The systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific marketing situation facing an organization is called ________.

marketing research

Using commercial online databases

marketing researchers can conduct their own searches of secondary data sources

Neuromarketing

measuring brain activity to learn how consumers feel and respond -neuromarketing techniques can measure consumer involvement and emotional responses second by second, such brain responses can be difficult to interpret. -neuromarketing is usually used in combination with other research approaches to gain a more complete picture of what goes on inside consumers' heads

Research approaches for gathering primary data include

observation, surveys, and experiments.

A primary qualitative Internet-based research approach is

online focus groups

The researcher must evaluate secondary information carefully to make certain it is

relevant (fits the research project's needs), accurate (reliably collected and reported), current (up to date enough for current decisions), and impartial (objectively collected and reported).

Designing a plan for primary data collection calls for a number of decisions on

research approaches, contact methods, the sampling plan, and research instruments.

Netnography

research observing consumers in a natural context on the Internet

Immersion groups

small groups of consumers who interact directly and informally with product designers without a focus group moderator present