Chapter 2
Marketing Research
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After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
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
Nature of marketing research.

Define marketing research.

Importance of marketing research.

6 steps in marketing research process.

Problems emerging from marketing
research.
The Nature of Marketing Research?
Can help the marketing manager to:
(1) Identify and define marketing problems and
opportunities accurately;
(2) Understand markets and customers and
offer reliable prediction about them;
(3) Develop marketing strategies and actions
to provide a competitive edge; and refine
and evaluate them;
(4) Facilitate efficient expenditure of funds;
(5) Monitor marketing performance; and
(6)Improve the understanding of marketing as
a process.
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What is Marketing Research?
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
Marketing Research:

Systematic design, collection,
analysis and reporting of data
and findings relevant to a
specific marketing situation
facing the company.

Marketing Research:
• Specifies the information required to address
these issues.
• Designs the methods for collecting information.
• Manages and implements the data collection
process.
• Analyzes the results.
• Communicates the findings and implications.
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
Importance of Marketing Research:
• Expand the market firms scope.
• Increased competition.
• Plan the firm strategy.
• Increased use of technology.
• Changing needs & wants requirements.
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
Marketing Research:
 Where
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do you get the info?

A. you can do it yourself by making
someone in the company responsible
for doing the research

B. you can hire an outside agency that
specializes in Market Research

Marketing Research:

There are 3 types of outside agencies (marketing research firms):

1. Syndicate-service research firms



- these firms gather consumer and trade
information, which they sell for a fee.
- example: A.C. Nielsen Media Research.

2. Custom marketing research firms
- these firms are hired to carry out specific projects.
- they design the study and report the findings.

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3. Specialty-line marketing research firms.

- these firms provide specialized research services.

- example: field-service firm, which sells field interviewing

services to other firms

Marketing Research:
Small companies can hire the services of a
marketing research firm or conduct research in
creative and affordable ways, such as:

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1. Engaging students or professors to design and

carry out projects

2. Using the Internet

3. Checking out rivals
The Marketing Research Process

Six steps involved in marketing
research process:
• The problems in decision alternatives and the
research objectives.
• The research plan.
• The information collection.
• The information analysis.
• Research findings.
• Decision making.
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Step 1: The Problem in Decision Alternatives and the
Research Objectives

Problem Definition:
• The first step in any marketing research project and is
critical to its success.

All parties involved must:
• Focus on the real research problem, not the
symptoms.
•
•

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Anticipate how the information will be used.
Avoid prescribing a specific study until the problem is
fully understood and defined.
Marketing managers must be careful not to define the
problem too broadly or too narrowly for the marketing
researcher.
Research Designs/Plan



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Exploratory Research:
•
Typically carried out to satisfy the researcher’s desire for better
understanding, or to develop preliminary background and suggest
issues for a more detailed follow-up study.
Descriptive Research:
•
Normally directed by one or more formal research questions or
hypotheses.
• Cross-sectional study
• Longitudinal research
Causal Research:
•
Experiments in which researchers manipulate independent variables
and then observe or measure the dependent variable or variables of
interest.
Step 2: The Research Plan
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
The second stage of marketing research calls for developing the
most efficient plan for the needed information.

The marketing manager needs to know the cost of the research plan
before approving it.

Designing a research plan calls for decisions on the data sources,
research approaches, research instruments, sampling plan and
contact methods.
Data Sources
Primary Data
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Secondary Data
Data being collected
for the first time.
Previously produced or
published matter.
Data freshly gathered
for a specific purpose
or for a specific research
project.
Data that were
collected for another
purpose and already
exist somewhere.
Data Types
Primary Data
Secondary Data
SURVEYS
- Mail
- Telephone
INTERNAL DATA
- Company records
- Data from MDSS
INTERVIEWS
- Mall intercepts
- Personal interviews
EXTERNAL DATA
Proprietary
- Custom Research
- Syndicated services
Nonproprietary
- Published reports
- Census data
- Periodicals
FOCUS GROUPS
- Personal
- Mechanical
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Research Approaches

Observational Research
-

Focus Group Research
-
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Fresh data can be gathered by observing the relevant actors and
setting.
Consumers can be unobtrusively observed as they shop or as
they consume products.
Gathering of 6 to 10 people who are carefully selected based on
certain demographic, psychographic or other considerations and
brought together to discuss various topics of interest at length.
Participants are normally paid a small sum for attending.
Research Approaches

Survey Research
-

Behavioral Data
Customers leave traces of their purchasing behavior in store
-
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Companies undertake surveys to learn about people’s
knowledge, beliefs, preferences, satisfaction and to measure
these magnitudes in the general population.
scanning data, catalog purchases and customer databases.
Customers’ actual purchases reflect preferences and often are
more reliable than statements they offer to market researchers.
People may report preferences for popular brands, and yet the
data show them actually buying other brands.
Research Approaches

Experimental Research
The most scientifically valid research is experimental
-
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research.
To capture cause-and-effect relationships by eliminating
competing explanations of the observed findings.
To the extent that the design and execution of the experiment
eliminate alternative hypotheses that might explain the results,
research and marketing managers can have confidence in the
conclusions.
Research Instruments

Questionnaires
-

Qualitative Measures
-
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A set of questions presented to respondents.
Gauging consumer opinion because consumer actions do not
always match their answers to survey questions.
Qualitative research techniques – unstructured measurement
approaches that permit a range of possible responses.
Research Instruments

Qualitative Measures
-
7 techniques employed by design firm IDEO for understanding
the customer experience:
1. Shadowing
- observing people using products, shopping, going to
hospitals, taking the train, using cell phones.
2. Behavior mapping
- photographing people within a space, such as a hospital
waiting room, over two or three days.
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Research Instruments
3. Consumer journey
- keeping track of all the interactions a consumer has with a
product, service or space.
4. Camera journals
- asking consumers to keep visual diaries of their activities
and impressions relating to a product.
5. Extreme user interviews
- talking to people who really know or know nothing about a
product or service and evaluating their experience using it.
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Research Instruments
6. Storytelling
- prompting people to tell personal stories about their
consumer experiences.
7. Unfocus Group
- interviewing a diverse group of people: to explore ideas
about sandals, a bodybuilder, a podiatrist and a shoe
fetishist.
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Research Instruments

Mechanical Devices
-
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Occasionally used in marketing research.
Example: galvanometers can measure the interest or emotions
aroused by exposure to a specific ad or picture.
Types of Survey Research Questions

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Scaled
•
•
Likert agree-disagree
Semantic differential

Multichotomous (multiple choice)

Categorical

Open-ended
Five Errors in Question Design
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Double-barreled wording
Loaded wording
Ambiguous wording
Inappropriate vocabulary
Missing alternatives
Sampling Plan
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
Sampling Unit
- who is to be surveyed?

Sample Size
- how many people should be surveyed?

Sampling Procedure
- how should the respondents be chosen?
Sampling

Probability Sampling
• Simple random sampling
- every member of the population has an equal chance of
selection.
• Stratified sampling
- the population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such
as age group) and random samples are drawn from each group
• Cluster sampling
- the population is divided into mutually exclusive groups (such
as city blocks) and the researcher draws a sample of the
groups to interview.
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Sampling

Nonprobability Sampling
• Convenience sample
- the researcher selects the most accessible population
members.
• Judgment sample
- the researcher selects population members who are good
prospects for accurate information.
• Quota sample
- the researcher finds and interviews a prescribed number of
people in each of several categories.
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Contact Methods

Mail Questionnaire
-

the best way to reach people who would not give personal
interviews or whose responses might be biased or distorted by
the interviewers.
Telephone Interview
the best method for gathering information quickly; the interviewer
is also able to clarify question if respondents do not understand
them.
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Contact Methods

Personal Interview
-
-

Online Interview
-
-
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the interviewer can ask more questions and record additional
observations about the respondent, such as dress and body
language.
most expensive method and requires more administrative
planning and supervision.
A company can include a questionnaire on its Web site and offer
an incentive to answer the questionnaire; or it can place a
banner on some frequently visited.
Example: Yahoo – inviting people to answer some questions and
possibly win a prize.
Step 3: The Information Collection
•
•
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The data collection phase of marketing research is
generally the most expensive and the most prone to
error.
In the case of survey, 4 major problems arise:
i. Some respondents will not be at home and must be
contacted again or replaced.
ii. Other respondents will refuse to cooperate.
iii. Others will give biased or dishonest answers.
iv. Interviewers will be biased or dishonest.
Step 3: The Information Collection/Fieldwork

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Fieldwork is the process of:
•
Contacting respondents
•
Conducting interviews
•
Completing surveys
Step 4: The Information Analysis


Extract findings from the collected
data
Techniques for analyzing marketing
research data:
•
•
•
•
•
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Tabulates the data and develops
frequency distributions
Averages and measures of
dispersion are computed for the
major variables.
Means
Percentages
Complex multivariate statistical tests
Step 5: Research Findings
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
As the last step, the researcher presents the findings.

The researcher should present findings that are
relevant to the major marketing decisions facing
management.
Step 6: Decision Making
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Step 6: Decision Making
• The managers who commissioned the research need
to weigh the evidence.
• If their confidence in the findings is low, they may
decide against the problems.
• A growing number of organizations are using a
marketing decision support system to help their
marketing managers make better decisions.
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Marketing Decision Support Systems (MDSS)
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MDSS Are Designed to:
Support not supplant management
decision marketing.
Apply to semi structured decisions of
middle and upper management
(pricing, promotion, and location
decisions).
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MDSS Are Designed To:
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
Provide interaction
between and among
people and systems.

Center on a segment of
related decisions (the
allocation of marketing
effort and resources).

Be user-friendly.
Problem Emerging From Marketing Research
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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A narrow conception of the
research.
Uneven caliber of researchers.
Poor framing of the problem.
Late and occasionally erroneous
findings.
Personality and presentational
differences