EXAM 1

Completeness

*Information completeness- refers to having the right amount of information -Often incomplete info leads decision makers to conduct marketing research

The Scientific Method

- All marketing research, whether basic or applied, involves the scientific method. -Scientific method is the way researchers go about using knowledge and evidence to reach objective conclusions about the real world. -Involves developing hypotheses and testing them against empirical evidence (facts from observation or experimentation). From these results, new knowledge is acquired.

Research Process Stage 2: PLANNING THE RESEARCH DESIGN

- a master plan that specifies the methods & procedures for collecting & analyzing the needed information -Pretty much a framework for the research plan of action ***SELECTION OF THE BASIC RESEARCH METHOD*** -Surveys, Experiments, Secondary Data, Observation

Define Casual inference

If we do one thing, another thing will follow while conducting research, key word is CONCLUSION

Descriptive research often helps describe ____?

Market Segments

Timeliness

Means that the data are current enough to still be relevant

What is Exploratory Research particularly useful for?

NEW PRODUCT DEVELOPMENT

What is the purpose of a Decision Support System (DSS)

Purpose is to store data and transform them into organized info that is easily accessible to marketing managers, enabling decisions to be made in minutes rather than days or weeks.

The Prime managerial value of Marketing Research is that it reduces...?

Reduces UNCERTAINTY by providing information that facilitates decision making about marketing strategies and the TACTICS used to achieve an organization's strategic goals

Qualitative research is said to be more _______, meaning the results are research-dependent

SUBJECTIVE

Marketing Research can be classified on the basis of either...

-technique (EX: experiments, surveys, observation studies) -Purpose

Using a Qualitative Approach

-the less specific a research objective is or if a researcher wants to understand motives/develop novel concepts, the more likely it is to be used

What 3 parties are actually involved in Marketing Research?

1) "doers", the people actually performing the research 2) "Users", which is the client, sponsor, or management team requesting the research 3) Research participants, meaning the actual research respondents or subjects

Name Eight Categories of Exploratory Reseach

1) Experience surveys 2) Secondary Data Analysis 3) Case Studies 4) Pilot Studies 5) Focus Group interview 6) Depth interviews 7) Projective Techniques 8) Observation

Classifying marketing research on the basis of it's PURPOSE, it can be broken up into 3 categories:

1) Exploratory 2) Descriptive 3) Casual

Four stages involved in Developing/Implementing a Marketing Strategy

1) Identifying & Evaluating market opportunities 2) Analyzing market segments & Selecting target markets 3) Planning & Implementing a marketing mix that will provide value to customers/meet new objectives 4) Analyzing firm performance

Rights and Obligations of the Research Participants

1) Obligation to be Truthful 2) Right to Privacy 3) Right to be Informed 4) Protection from Harm

Information can be evaluated by using FOUR characteristics

1) Relevance 2) Quality 3) Timeliness 4) Completeness

3 critical pieces of Casual evidence

1) Temporal Sequence 2) Concomitant Variation 3) Non-spurious Association

Reasons to favor an outside agnecy

1. Can provide a fresh perspective 2. Can be more objective 3. Outside agency may have special expertise

What is the Genral pattern of Marketing Research? *hint- 6 stages

1. Defining the research objectives 2. Planning a research design 3. Planning a sample 4. Collecting the data 5. Analyzing the data 6. Formulating conclusion/ Preparing the Report

Advantages of Focus Groups

1. Fast 2. Easy to execute 3. Piggy-back off each others ideas 4. Provide multiple perspectives 5. Flexibility to allow more detailed descriptions 6. High degree of scrutiny

Major Categories of Pilot Studies

1. Focus Group Interviews 2. Depth Interviews 3. Projective techniques

Disadvantages to Focus Groups

1. Requires objective, sensitive, & effective moderators that won't interject 2. Sampling problems--may not represent target market 3. Face-to-face may not be useful for sensitive topics 4. Expensive $$$$$$

Most common Projective Techniques are:

1. Word association tests 2. Sentence completion methods 3. Third person techniques 4. Thematic appreception tests

Conditions that make in-house research more attractive

1.Research needs to be completed quickly 2. project requires diversity from employees 3.It's Cheap! 4. Secrecy may be concern

What is a Hypothesis?

A hypothesis is a formal statement explaining some outcome. • Must be testable, so it must be written as a proposition. • In its simplest form, it is a guess. • Often apply statistics to data to empirically test hypotheses. • Empirical testing means that something has been examined against reality using data.

Who can use Marketing Research?

All types of organizations that engage in some form of marketing activity

Information

data that is formatted (structured) to support decision making or define the relationship between two facts

Temporal Sequence

deals with the time order of events; having an appropriate causal order of events means the cause must occur before the effect.

Experience Survey

in attempting to gain insight into the problem, researchers may discuss the concepts with top executives and knowledgeable individuals (i.e., key retailers, members of the sales force), both inside and outside the company.

(DSS) A Marketing Decision Support System

is a system that helps decision makers confront problems through direct interaction with computerized databases and analytical software programs

Research is sometimes performed "in-house" What does that mean?

meaning that employees will conduct research for their own company without using outside source

Research done from outside agency

means a company will hire an outside agency to perform a research project

Concomitant Variation

occurs when two events "covary," meaning they vary systematically and a when a change in cause occurs, a change in outcome also is observed. -Correlation is often used to represent this.

Marketing Research is the process of..?

process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about customers, competition, and the business environment to improve marketing effectivness

Some refer to pilot studies that generate qualitative information as _______

qualitative research

Data

simply facts or recorded measures of certain phenomena (things)

Case Studies

simply refer to documented history of a particular person, group, organization, or event

Marketing Research

the application of the scientific method in searching for the truth about marketing phenomena

Market Intelligence

the subset of data and information that actually has some explanatory power enabling effective decisions to be made -So, there is more DATA than information, and more INFORMATION than intelligence

What are some key differences b/t Qualitative and Quantitative Research?

• Quantitative researchers measure concepts with scales that provide numeric values. • Qualitative researchers are more interested in observing, listening, and interpreting. - Qualitative research is said to be more SUBJECTIVE, meaning the results are researcher-dependent. -Qualitative research is most often used in EXPLORATORY designs.

INFORMATION REDUCES ________

UNCERTAINTY

What influences the Type of Research?

UNCERTAINTY -the uncertainty of the research problem is related to the type of research project

QUALITATIVE MARKETING RESEARCH

-Addresses marketing objectives through techniques that allow researcher to provide elaborate interpretations of market phenomena without depending on numerical measurement -data is obtained from a relatively small group of respondents and not analyzed with inferential statistics. -Less structured than most quantitative approaches -More RESEARCHER-DEPENDENT, meaning that the researcher must extract meaning from unstructured responses (text from a recorded interview)

Casual Research

-Allows casual inferences to be made -Seeks to identify cause/effect relationship -In this form of research the marketer tries to determine if the manipulation of one variable, called the independent variable, affects another variable, called the dependent variable -Usually follows Exploratory and Descriptive research

Research process Stage 1: Defining Research Objectives

-Beginning of research process -Both researchers & managers should understand the info needed by the managers that the research is to provide *Research objectives are goals to be achieved by conducting research -Stating Research Objectives: after identifying/clarifying problem, researcher must state the research objectives -Identification of key variables - Use of Theory/Hypothesis

Exploratory Research

-Conducted to clarify: *nature of a research problem *ambiguous situations *discover ideas leading to potential business opportunity -NOT intended to provide conclusive evidence - More info will be needed to provide conclusive evidence

Quality

-Data quality is the degree to which data represent the true situation -High quality data are accurate, valid, and reliable, and represent faithfully -Obtaining the same data from multiple sources is one check on its quality -CRITICAL ISSUE IN MARKETING RESEARCH

Descriptive Research

-Describes characteristics of:OBJECTS, PEOPLE, GROUPS, ORGANIZATIONS, ENVIRONMENTS -Addresses who,what,where,when,& how questions - Often helps describe Market Segments -Accuracy is CRITICALLY IMPORTANT -Conducted with considerable understanding of the situation being studied -Survey research typifies a descriptive study *Diagnostic analysis

Misuses of Exploratory & Qualitative Research

-Exploratory research cannot take place of conclusive, confirmatory research -One of the biggest drawbacks is the subjectivity that comes along with "interpretation" -Is the result REPLICABLE, meaning it could be produced by another researcher.

Experiments

-Hold greatest potential for establishing cause/effect relationships -Allows investigation of changes in one variable (SALES) while manipulating other variables (PRICE,ADVERTISING) -isolates casual factors by eliminating outside influences -TEST MARKETING most frequently used here

Secondary Data For Descriptive & Quantitative Analysis

-Like exploratory research studies, descriptive and casual studies use previously collected data -Secondary and Historical are interchangeable; known as SECONDARY DATA

What is QUALITATIVE RESEARCH?

-More interested in QUALITY rather than quantity

Surveys

-Most common method for generating primary data -defined as a research technique in which a sample is interviewed or behavior is observed and described in some way -Researchers task is to find best way to collect the needed info (EX:phone,mail,internet, or in person)

Depth Interviews

-One-on-one interview b/t researcher and respondant -Interviewers role is critical -Probing questions are critical

Relevance

-Reflects how pertinent these particular facts are to the situation at hand -Irrelevant data and information often creep into decision making -Relevant data are facts about things that can be changed, and if they are changed, it will materially change the situation

Diagnostic Analysis (term used in descriptive research)

-Seeks to diagnose reasons for market outcomes -Focuses on consumer feelings/beliefs towards competing products -Sometimes provides explanation by diagnosing differences among competitors, but doesn't provide direct evidence of causality

What is a theory?

-a formal, LOGICAL EXPLANTION of some events that includes predictions of how things relate to one another

What is QUANTITATIVE Marketing Research?

-addresses research objectives through empirical assessments that involve numerical measurement and analysis approaches. -requires less interpretation. -Quantitative researchers measure concepts with scales that provide numeric values.

Nonspurious Association

-any covariation b/t a cause/effect is true and not simply due to some other variable

Pilot Studies

-covers a number of diverse research techniques -Context indicates some aspect of research (EX: fieldwork) will be on a small scale -a pilot study is a research project that involves sampling but relaxes the rigorous standards used to obtain precise quantitative estimates from large representative samples -Generates primary data for QUALITATIVE analysis .

Projective Techniques

-indirect means of questioning that enables respondents to project beliefs/feelings onto a 3rd party, inanimate object, or task

Observation

-objective is to record what can be observed -mechanically recorded or human observation -main advantage is that it records behavior without relying on reports from respondents -Data collected passively without respondents direct participation -Several things of interest (attitudes, opinions, motives, etc) cannot be observed

Qualitative research is most often used in _______ design

EXPLORATORY

Focus group interview

an unstructured, free-flowing interview with a small group of people (6-10 people) -led by trained moderator