The Human Side of
Marketing Research
Continuum of Marketing Research
Sophistication
Research-Centered
Decision Making
Stage of intuitive
decision making
Intuition-Centered
Decision Making
Stage of development
Stage of
sophistication
Managers
Researchers
1)
2)
3)
4)
1)
2)
3)
4)
Decision-oriented
Intuitive
Like to confirm
Time orientation -- Proactive
1) Project immediacy
2) Results about future behavior
5) Frugal
6) Results orientation
1) Do not like surprises – tend to
reject the results
2) Concern
Aren’t we #1 yet?
3) Certainty
1)
1) Project prolongment
2) Results about past behavior
5) Not cost conscious
1) keep costs down
1)
Technique-oriented
Analytical
Like to explore
Time orientation -- Reactive
Is it or isn’t it?
1) You get what you pay for
6) Results orientation
1) Love surprises – like finding out
new info about the world
2) Abstraction
1)
Our exponential gain ….
3) Probability
1)
May be …..
Who Should Do the Research?
• Outside Agency (Research supplier)
– An independent research firm contracted by the company that
actually will benefit from the research.
•
•
•
•
Can provide a fresh perspective
Often can be more objective
May have special expertise
Often has local expertise
• In-house Research
– Research performed by employees of the company that will
benefit from the research.
•
•
•
•
Can complete the research quickly
Allows close collaboration with other employees
Economy
Secrecy
Organizational Structure of Marketing
Research: Mid-Sized Firms
• Director of marketing research
– Provides leadership in research efforts & integrates all stafflevel research activities into one effort.
– Plans, executes, & controls the firm’s marketing research
function.
• Research analyst
– Responsible for
• client contact,
• project design,
• preparation of proposals,
• selection of research suppliers
• supervision of data collection, analysis , & reporting activities.
Organizational Structure of Marketing
Research (cont’d)
• Research assistants (or associates)
– Provide technical assistance with questionnaire design, data
analyses, &similar activities.
– Also called junior analysts
• Manager of decision support systems
– Supervises the collection and analysis of sales, inventory, and
other periodic customer relationship management (CRM)
data.
• Forecast analyst
– Provides technical assistance, such as running computer
programs and manipulating data to forecast sales.
Medium-Sized Research Department
Director of marketing research
and sales forecasting
Research analyst
(project director)
Research assistant
(entry-level trainee)
Manager of
sales research
Forecast
analysts
The Director of Marketing Research:
Problems in Directing Research
• Skilled research professionals like conducting
research better than managing people.
• The research management role often is not
formally recognized.
• Outstanding research professionals often have
trouble delegating responsibility.
• Research is often seen as a hodgepodge of
techniques available to answer individual,
unrelated questions.
Marketing Research Pays
• Research analysts’
salaries are
$45,000 - $85,000,
but some make
over $100,000
• Entry level is
lower: $22,500 $55,000
Research Supplier
• A commercial marketing research
service that conducts marketing
research activities for clients
• Syndicated service
– Can provide standardized service
– Can provide customized research
World’s Largest Research Firms (2010)
Choosing Research Suppliers
Evaluative Criteria
Description
Technical Competency
Possesses necessary functional requirements to conduct project.
Expertise, practical skills, confidence
Marketing Knowledge
Ability to assimilate diverse marketing environments and
situations very rapidly. Quickly link client’s business with valid
project.
Reliability of Service
Ability to be consistent and responsive to client’s needs.
Conformance to
Standards
Ability to be accurate and on time. “Never promise what you
can’t deliver.”
Reputation
Aggregate of the 4 criteria above.
Evaluating Research Suppliers
Evaluative Criteria
Description
Marketing Knowledge
Translates objectives into marketing perspective; recommends
marketing program action.
Technical Skills
Design, questionnaire, sample, measures, analysis
Reliability
Consistent performance over entire project duration
Responsiveness
Willingness/readiness to provide designated tasks as indicated
in research proposal
Access
Prompt replies to questions; easily approachable
Evaluating Research Suppliers
Evaluative Criteria
Description
Communication
Keeps client informed throughout entire project
Credibility
Exhibits expertise; trustworthy; performs in professional
manner
Understanding
Tries to keep project costs low; understands true nature of
client’s problems, business, daily activities
Quality of report
Well-planned, concise, accurate report; no wasted information
in presentation
Cost
Justifies/itemizes costs based on all necessary tasks to complete
project
Timing
Completes project as promised within reasonable time frame
Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
• Marketing ethics
– The application of morals to behavior related to the
exchange environment.
• Moral standards
– Principles that reflect beliefs about what is ethical
and what is unethical.
• Ethical dilemma
– A situation in which one chooses from alternative
courses of actions, each with different ethical
implications.
Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
(cont’d)
• Relativism
– Degree to which one rejects moral standards in
favor of the acceptability of some action.
– Rejects absolute principles in favor of
situation-based evaluations.
• Idealism
– Degree to which one bases one’s morality on
moral standards.
• example: the Golden Rule
General Rights and Obligations of
Concerned Parties
• Everyone involved in marketing research can
face an ethical dilemma:
– The people actually performing the research—the
“doers.”
– The research client, sponsor, or the management
team requesting the research—the “users.”
– The research participants—the actual research
respondents or subjects.
– Society at large — forms governments that oversee
all aspects of commerce & benefits from effective
research.
Rights & Obligations of Marketing Research
18
Rights & Obligations:
Research Participant
• Informed Consent
– The individual understands what the researcher
wants him/her to do and consents to the research
study.
• Implicit Consent
– Behaviors that are performed in public, implies that
one is willing to have others observe them.
• Confidentiality
– The information involved in the research will not be
shared with others.
• Be Truthful
Deception in Research Designs And the Right To
Be Informed
• Experimental Designs
– Placebo
• False experimental effect used to create perception
of a true effect.
– Debriefing
• Research subjects are fully informed & provided
with a chance to ask any questions they may have
about the experiment.
– Mystery shoppers
• Employees of a research firm that are paid to
pretend to be actual shoppers.
Protection from Harm
• Questions to ask to help avoid harming a research subject:
– Has the research subject provided consent to participate in an
experiment?
– Is the research subject subjected to substantial physical or
psychological trauma?
– Can the research subject be easily returned to his or her initial
state?
• Human Subjects Review Committee
– Reviews proposed research designs to ensure that no harm can
come to any research participant.
– Also called Institutional Review Board (IRB)
Rights and Obligations of the Client Sponsor
(User)
• The Right to Privacy (confidentiality)
• Commitment to the research
• Theft of creative ideas
– Get ideas from researchers & conduct study
themselves, or
– Use the ideas they got as a bargaining tool with other
suppliers
• Use of pseudo-pilot studies
– Researcher is told study is 1st of many in a
comprehensive study (when it’s actually only the 1)
Rights of the Researcher
• Fair compensation for efforts
• Properly cited as research provider
Obligations of the Researcher
 Objectivity
 Understand that the purpose of research is research -- no
sales pitch to research participants
 Do not misrepresent research
 Be honest in reporting errors & limitations
 Protect the confidentiality of both subjects & clients
 Appropriately price the research
 Data Validation
 Attempt to ensure data collected & recorded accurately
 Typically 20% of total responses
Researcher Unethical Behaviors
 Falsifying data
 Rocking chair interviewing
 Duplicating actual response data
 Phantom respondents
 Consciously manipulating data structures inappropriately
 Inflation of research price with “soft” costs – travel
expenses, monetary response incentives, etc
 Selling unnecessary / unwarranted research services
 i.e., sells 2 or 3 data collection forms while only 1 is necessary to
achieve the research objectives
Researcher Unethical Behaviors
 Fulfilling promises to respondents and/or
field workers
 Incentives usually not given until project is over
 Recipients thus lose leverage
 Respondent abuse
 Misrepresent interview length
 Selling PII without approval
 Tracing individual respondents for sales call purposes
 Covertly recording audio / visual without permission
When Nobody Is Looking?
• Sometimes the
stakeholders involved
in research are
presented with subtle
or perhaps even
invisible ways to
influence the research
process in potentially
unethical ways.
How Results Can Be Misrepresented in a Report or
Presentation
Research That Isn’t Research
• Pseudo-research
– Conducted not to gather information for
marketing decisions but to bolster a point of
view & satisfy other needs.
• Push poll
– Telemarketing under guise of research.
• Service monitoring
– Contacting customers about their experience
with a product, there is no selling attempt.
The Researcher & Conflicts of Interest
• Conflict of interest
–Occurs when one researcher works
for two competing companies
Suggestions
• Develop & enforce a Code of Ethics
• Develop & publish a Privacy Policy
• Maintain an opt-out list for all survey
methods
– Phone
– Mail
– Electronic