ENT4310
Business Economics and
Marketing
A six-step model for marketing research
Arild Aspelund
Outline
• Key variables of market research
• A six-step model for marketing research
– Selection of methods
– Development of tools
• What characterizes good marketing research?
What do you wanna know?
• Volume
– What is a reasonable estimate of the total market for this product
or service?
• Value
– What value would consumers associate to the product or service?
– Does it change with the population?
• Appropriability
– What is a reasonable estimate of your part of the pie?
A Six-step Model for Market
Research
Define the problem
Develop research plan
Collect information
Analyze information
Present findings
Make
decision
Step 1: Defining the problem
• The problem must be adequately defined
– Not too narrow, not too broad
• Remember that reality is complex
– Clearly state the alternatives, objectives and limitations of the
research project
• Different problems require different research
approaches
– Exploratory
– Descriptive
– Causal
Step 2: Develop the research plan
• The research plan helps you to coordinate the job,
but also
– Communicating and assessing objectives
– Assessing costs
– Document the process
• Contents and key decision points
–
–
–
–
–
Data sources
Research approaches
Research instruments
Sampling plan
Contact methods
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Data sources
• There two sources of data
– Primary data – data collected for this specific project
– Secondary data – originally gathered and structures for another purpose
• A marketing research project normally involves use of both
types of data
• Researchers usually starts out the project by investigating and
exploring secondary data
• Secondary data are advantageous because it is readily
available at usually low costs
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research approach
• Most projects will involve gathering of primary data. And you
have several ways of doing so.
– Just make sure your data fits your purpose!
• Observational research
– Observing relevant actors in relevant settings – consumer behavior!
• Focus group research
–
–
–
–
6 – 10 carefully selected people
In-depth discussion of various topics
Professionally moderated
Consumer motivation, quality and functional feed-back
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research approach
• Survey research
– Large scale investigations of peoples knowledge, beliefs, preferences and
satisfaction in the general population
– Market potential and feasibility studies for new product launches
• Behavioral data
– Analysis of actual consumer behavior from collected customer records
– More reliable that questionnaire data
• Experimental research
– The most scientific approach
– Primarily used to detect cause-and-effect relationships
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research instruments
• Questionnaires
– A very flexible instrument for data collection, and by far the most
frequently used
• Questionnaires need to be developed, tested and
debugged before they are exposed to the respondent
– Carefully choose questions, wording and sequence
– The form of the question can influence the response
– One can choose from a broad range of question types
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research instruments
Some questionnaire do’s and don’ts
• Ensure questions are free of
bias
• Make questions simple
• Make questions specific
• Avoid jargon
• Avoid sophisticated words
• Avoid ambiguous words
•
•
•
•
•
•
Avoid negatives
Avoid hypotheticals
Avoid words that could be
misheard
Use response bands
Use mutually exclusive
categories
Allow for “other” in fixed
response questions
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research instruments
Qualitative measures
Shadowing
Behavior mapping
Consumer journey
Camera journals
Extreme user interviews
Storytelling
Unfocused groups
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Research instruments
Mechanical devices
Galvanometers
Tachistoscope
Eye cameras
Audiometers
GPS
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Sampling Plan
•
•
Sampling unit
•
Sample size
•
Sampling procedure
Probability sample
– Simple random sample
– Stratified random sample
– Cluster sample
•
Non-probability sample
– Convenience sample
– Judgement sample
– Quota sample
Step 2: Develop the research plan
- Contact Methods
• Mail questionnaire
• Telephone interview
• Personal interview
• Online interview
• What are the pro’s and con’s of these methods?
Step 3: Collect the information
• Collecting the data is the most time and resource consuming
part of the process
• Make sure yourself reasonably sure that you have done your
homework before entering this phase
• Numerous problems may arise along the process
– Respondents not available, not cooperative, biased or dishonest
• Such problems are unavoidable, just make sure they don’t
leave a bias in your data
Step 4: Analyse the information
• … this is the point where you do not want to find out that your
data is not analyzable…
• Structure out the data and explore it
• Analyze it according to
– Interesting descriptives
– Relevant causal relations
• Your level of sophistication in analytical methods will determine
the value added from the research process
Step 5: Present the findings
• Structure the information that you find relevant for management
• Make sure the presentation is not overloaded
– Rather split it up in nice packages…
• Presenting the scientific method is almost as important as
presenting the results
– You need to document your reliability…
Step 6: Make the decision
• Decisions are made in the intersection between the
findings and their reliability
• Ingredients of good market research
–
–
–
–
–
–
–
Scentific method
Creativity
Multiple research methods
Accurate model building
Cost-benefit analysis
Healthy scepticism
Ethical focus
Summary and Continuation
• The key variables of market research are volume, value and
appropriability
• The market research process can be defined into 6 distinctive
steps
–
–
–
–
–
–
Define the problem
Develop a research plan
Collect information
Analyze information
Present findings
Make decisions
• Continuation
– Market analysis – External Analysis