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