Marketing Research
Ch. 28 ME
Section 28.1
Marketing Information Systems
Defining Marketing Research
 Marketing Research – involves the process and methods
used to gather information, analyze it, and report findings
related to marketing goods and services
 Is often used by companies to:
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Determine customers’ attitudes and preferences
Test product features
Determine market size and growth potential
Learn about competitive products
Determine buying cycles
Understand how the company is perceived by the public
Why is Marketing Research
Important?
Helps businesses increase sales and profits
Answers questions about:
 What products to produce
At what price to sell the products
How the products will be promoted
Solve market problems and gauge the potential of new ideas
Helps a company keep track of what is happening with its
current markets
Marketing Information Systems
 Marketing Information Systems – is a set of procedures and
methods that regularly generates, stores, analyzes, and
distributes information for the use in making marketing and
other business decisions
 Rely heavily on:
 Data about current customers
 Overall product sales reports
 Inventory levels
Database Marketing
 Database Marketing (CRM) – is a process of designing,
creating, and managing customer lists
 Developed from customer touch points such as face to face sales,
direct-mail responses, telephone or e-mail purchases, service
requests, or Web site visits
1. Section 28.2
Types, Trends, and Limitations
of Marketing Research
Types of Marketing Research
 Quantitative Research – answers questions that start with
“How many” or “how much”
 Gathers information from large numbers of people
 Relies heavily on the surveys or questionnaires to obtain
information
 Qualitative Research – focuses on smaller numbers of people
(usually fewer than 100) and tries to answer questions about
“why” or “how”
 Relies heavily on in-depth interviews
Types of Marketing Research
 Attitude Research – is designed to obtain information on how
people feel about certain products, services, companies, or
ideas
 Market Intelligence – is concerned with the size and location of
a market, the competition, and the segmentation with the
market for a particular product or service
Forecasting
 Sales Forecasting – is an attempt to estimate the future slaes of
an existing product
 Economic Forecasting – is an attempt to predict the future
economic conditions of a city, a region, a country, or other part
of the world
Media Research
 Media Research – focuses on issues of media effectiveness,
selection, frequency, and ratings
 Media Advertising Measurers
 Audience – is the number of homes or people exposed to a
particular advertising medium
 Frequency – is the number of times a viewer in the audience sees
or hears an ad
 Reach – is the percentage of the target audience that will see or
hear an ad at least once
Product Research
 Product Research – centers on evaluating product design,
package design, product usage, and consumer acceptance of
new and exiting products
 Also conducted to collect information on competitive products
 Concept testing is used in the early stages of product development