Marketing Research
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Not measurements, but WORDS!
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Seeking rich data, nuances
◦ Avoids reductionism, generalizations
◦ Instead of asking how many times someone
purchased an item, you ask "WHY...?"
◦ Typically the samples are small, and not "random"
Marketing Research
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Group Interviews
◦ Focus Groups
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Individual Interviews
◦ Experience Surveys
◦ Depth Interviews
 Structured or non-structured
◦ Protocol Analysis
◦ Projective Techniques
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Case Studies
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Advantages
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Greater depth
People's own words
Immediate feedback
Insights can come from participants
Limitations
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Lots of data
Hard to "code"
Not enough people to generalize
Idiosyncracies of a few people may mislead
Marketing Research
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Method:
◦ Moderated discussion group
◦ 6 to 12 participants
◦ Approx. 90 minutes
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Goals:
◦ to understand what people have to say, get
people to talk in detail, develop a synergistic
discussion
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Focus Groups
A loosely structured interview conducted by a trained
moderator among a small number of informants.
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Select a relatively homogenous
◦ Hold several to hear from different groups
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Develop protocol in advance
◦ Consider length, progression, probes, topic coverage, and
wording
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Assure comfort, appropriate location
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Offer refreshments, compensation
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Determine method of record keeping
◦ Agreed to by participants
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Transcribe focus group session
◦ Word for word transcription (best approach)
 All that was said
 Significant facial expressions, gestures
 Long pauses, silences
◦ Summary (when resources/time is limited)
 Must listen/view group several times to assure appropriate
emphasis on important issues
 May summarize some portions, transcribe others word for word
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Code findings
◦ Look for “themes” or topics that emerge.
◦ Apply a code each time the identified topics come up.
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Develop conclusions
Marketing Research
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Use of Focus Groups
Buick division of General Motors used focus groups to help
develop the Regal. Buick held 20 focus groups across the
country to determine what features customers wanted in a
car. The focus groups told GM they wanted a stylish car,
legitimate back seat, at least 20 miles per gallon, and 0 to 60
miles per hour acceleration in 11 seconds or less.
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Y K 7 49
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Based on the results, Buick engineers created clay
models of the car and mock-ups of the interior.
These were shown to other focus groups. The
respondents did not like the oversized bumpers and
the severe slope of the hood, but liked the four-disc
brakes and independent suspension.
Marketing Research
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Focus groups also helped refine the advertising campaign for
the Regal. Participants were asked which competing cars
most resembled Buick in image and features. The answer was
Oldsmobile, a sister GM division. In an effort to differentiate
the two, Buick was repositioned above Oldsmobile by
focusing on comfort and luxury features.
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The tag line for the 1998 Regal, “official car of the
Supercharged family,” was based on focus group findings.
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Rests on reflective thinking
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Not representative or generalizable
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Subjective interpretations
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High cost per participant
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Potential demand effects
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Depth Interviews
one-on-one interview
Unstructured, semi-structured, or structured
Protocol Analysis
Verbalization of decision process
Projective Techniques
For penetrating a person’s defense mechanisms
Intent: To gathering more revealing information
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Encourages respondents to project (or transfer) their
feelings
◦ to another person
◦ or to another situation
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Facilitate deeper examination of feelings and motives
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To overcome embarrassment, shyness, and minimize
deception
Marketing Research
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1.
Thoughts have emotional and subconscious content.
2.
The emotional and subconscious content is
important in buying and usage decisions.
3.
This content is not well verbalized by the
respondent through direct communication.
4.
This content is better verbalized through indirect
techniques.
Marketing Research
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Word Association
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Sentence Completion
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Thematic apperception: Elicits perceived themes.
◦ Explain picture
◦ Picture frustration: Cartoon/balloon Test
◦ Construction techniques: draw pictures, make
collages, write stories, etc.
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Role-playing Activity
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Also called Thematic
Apperception Test (TAT).
Subject writes a story
describing picture (20 min).
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May report verbally instead.
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What’s happening?
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Why?
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What are the person’s
feelings?
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Role-Playing Cartoon Test
Sears
Let’s see if we
can pick up
some
housewares at
Sears
?
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Assess experience in situation
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Provides rich data
◦ Can observe all variables in play
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Idiosyncracies of their situation may mislead
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