BUS115 Midterm (Ch. 1-9)

Product, price, promotion, place (distribution)

aim is to be more effective than competitors in creating, delivering, and communicating customer value.

designing, gathering, analyzing, reporting, and interpreting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem. 

define size, location, makeup of market for product/service

how the customer is going to be influenced by the marketing channel to make decisions.

Charles Coolidge Parlin (1930s)

Alfred Politz

Robert Merton

market research done internally by company

companies with lots of capital can go to companies dedicated to marketing.

do everything from defining problems, research design, collecting/analyzing data, and making the final report.

do only one or a few parts of the marketing service

• Ex:

  • Online communities

  • questionnaires

  • data collection

  • data analysis

  • pretesting

  • market demographics (ex: senior citizens).

proprietary process (secret and unique system) used for services like test marketing or measuring customer/employee satisfaction.

Neilson

$44 billion

1. Exploratory

2. Descriptive

3. Causal

1. Questionnaire- without bias

2. Focus group- focus group guide

3. Observe respondents- observation form

select 10% of respondents randomly and check that they indeed took part in the survey.

3-6

insight from research that allow manager to make a decision.

“If we research X, what needs to happen for us to use this research to make a decision?”

1. To gain background info, hypotheses

2. To understand the state of a variable (ex: level of brand loyalty)

3. To learn about the relationships between variables (ex: how level of brand loyalty is affected by advertising)

Unstructured. broad, trying to feel out the industry. 

1. Secondary data analysis

2. Experience surveys: Key informant / Lead-user surveys

3. Case analysis

4. Focus groups

consult someone who is very knowledgeable about subject

consult someone who will be an avid potential customer/user of this product.

Examines characteristics of consumers/markets. Who, what, where, when, how.

1. Cross-sectional studies

2. Longitudinal studies

a snapshot of population through sample surveys

ex: # of people w diabetes who are not obests vs. who are at a certain point in time

repeatedly measure same people over time. “Movies of the population.”

Respondents who have agreed to answer questions at regular intervals. 

1. continuous panels

2. discontinuous/omnibus panels

same questions each time to measure changes in consumers’ attitudes and behaviors over time. 

• Ex: brand switching, market-tracking

Different questions to same people. Helpful to have consumers that can be quickly accessed for different purposes.

“If x, then y.” Uses experiment with independent, dependent, and extraneous variables. 

type of survey design where dependent variable is measured before and after independent variable is changed.

dependent variable measured before independent variable is changed

dependent variable is measured after independnent variable is changed.

2 alternatives are simultaneosly tested to see which performs better.

change is actually due to changing independent variable

when relationship between variables can be generalized to the real world.

type of field setting where sales potential is tested in natural setting and independent variables of marketing mix are manipulated.

firm tests product/marketing mix through normal distribution channels.

• Pro: Externally valid.

• Con: competitors are aware of new products. 

supply side research with specific distribution methods.

data on consumer response to a new product is fed into a model containing certain assumptions regarding planned marketing programs, which generates likely product sales volume. Competition won’t see. Not as externally valid.

Lots of data from multiple sources. We generate 2.5 quintillion bytes of data daily.

developed by researchers for a specific project.

previously gathered data for another purpose outside of the company that can be applied in current context.

data that has been accumulated within the firm in the past and is used in database marketing or new research.

help direct marketing and strengthen relationships with customers, called CRM. Ex:

• not charging a fee to the biggest customer

• sending birthday invites to customers automatically

making sense out of lots of data

creating a different marketing mix strategy for each customer segment.

1. Published sources

2. Official statistics

3. Data aggregators

4. Syndicated services data

publicly distributed by specialists

• business journals

• magazines

• newspapers

  • academic journals

public, government, international organizations

• WHO

• OECD (Organization for Economic Co-operation and development)

• World Bank

• IMF

vendors package information on focused topics

• IBISWorld

• Statista

• ProQuest

firms collect highly specialized data and share them with subscribing firms (for a fee)

• quick

• inexpensive (compared to making your own)

• readily available

• can be used to enhance primary data by providing a benchmark and context

• helps research objective

• reporting units don’t match (ex: not same location)

• measurement units don’t match (ex: currency doesn’t match)

• definitions of characteristics can vary slightly

• outdated info or not credible

• syndicated

• packaged services

• shared costs

• faster

• high quality data

• buyers don’t have much control over the data that’s collected.

• buyers must commit to long-term contracts

• competitors have access to the same info

premade marketing research but from different data sources and is tailored for each client.

• can be used for measuring customer attitudes

• identifying segments and geodemographics

• monitoring promotion effectiveness

• tracking sales

data automatically collected when consumers buy products

piece of data sent to computer that stores users browsing data

unique identifier for a mobile device

identifies the physical location of a device

info created by users of online systems and shared with others

ratio of positive to negative comments posted about products and brands on web.

• structured questions and predetermined response options with a large population of respondents.

• specific purpose and clear, well defined numerical data format/sources.

• the “what” of the research

• collecting, analyzing, interpreting data by observing what people do and say.

• not standardized, open ended

• studying consumer behavior

• the “why” of the research

• creates “thick” data since its super important when tied with big data.

1. Qualitative before quantitative

2. quantitative before qualitiative

3. qualitative and quantitative concurrently

1. direct vs. indirect

2. overt vs. covert

3. structured vs. unstructured

4. in situ vs. invented

• Direct- observe behavior as it happens

• Indirect- observe effects of behavior from archives of secondary sources like historical records or from physical traces like tangible evidence of past events.

• Overt- respondent knows.

• Covert- subject doesn’t know they are being observed. (Mystery shopper)

• Structured- researcher identifies beforehand which behaviors are to be observed/recorded with a checklist and all other behaviors are ignored.

• Unstructured- all behavior is observed and observer determines what should be recorded based on what’s relevant. 

• In situ- Researcher observes behavior exactly as it happens

• Invented- Researcher creates simulated situations and watches what happens.

1. short time intervals

2. public behavior

3. faulty recall conditions - automatic behaviors that person can’t even realize they are doing them.

small groups brought together and guided by moderator in unstructured spontaneous discussion to gain relevant info for research problem.

• Typically 6-12 people meet in a room with a 1-way mirror for client viewing.

• Should be used when the objective is to describe rather than predict. 

• Should not be used when research question requires prediction or major decision.

• generate Ideas

• understand consumer vocab

• reveal consumer perceptions/motives

• understand correlation to quantitative findings.

• Pros:

  • New ideas, client can observe, understand lots of issue, easy to access.

• Cons: 

  • Not representative, dependent on moderator, difficult to interpret.

1. # of people

2. Who is in group

3. How many

4. How recruited

5. Where to meet

6. When should moderator get involved

7. How reported

8. Benefits of focus group

1. Categories of statements and the apparent consensus in the group. 

2. Demographic/buyer behavior characteristics compared to target market profile to understand how much the group represents the target market.

• detailed, comprehensive descriptive study of a group/consumers and their behavior, characteristics, culture, etc., over prolonged periods.

  • Effective for studying trends, habits, lifestyle, social/cultural context on consumption.

  • Close attention to words, metaphors, symbols, stories people use to explain lives and communicate.

1. Shopalongs- researcher accompanies a shopper with permission to observe and record shoper’s activities.

2. Mobile ethnography- respondents document their experiences through mobile phones.

3. Netnography- online interactions of individuals/communities on Internet and relationship people have with their electronics.

• probing questions, 1:1

• What the subject thinks about something, why they behave certain way.

how attributes are associated with consumer values. 

placing person in decision-making situation and asking them to verbalize everything they consider when making a decision.

• what protocol does the user take when making a decision?

participant projected into simulated activities in hopes they will divulge personal information that they wouldn’t normally say when directly questioned.

1. Word-association test

2. Sentence completion test

3. Picture test

4. Cartoon/Balloon test

5. Role-playing

- first word that comes to mind.

finish the sentence.

write a short story about picture to describe reactions

given a cartoon strip with characters and an empty speech/thought bubble and respondents fill it in.

how would they react as a 3rd person to a certain situation or specific statement.

understanding people’s involuntary responses to marketing stimuli such as eye movement, heart rate, skin conductance, breathing, brain activity.

1. Neuroimaging- viewing brain activity- unconscious emotions.

2. Eye tracking- measuring eye positions and movement.

3. Facial coding- measure universal expressions of emotions by appearance on faces.

examining qualitative data to find themes/patterns related to research objectives.

1. Theme- pattern found across data that relates to objective

2. Substantiating example- example that provides evidence for the theme.

3. Verbatim- quote from participant used as substantiating example.

1. Standardization

2. Lots of info quickly

3. Easy to do

4. Gets “beneath the surface”

5. Easy to analyze

6. Shows differences in subgroups

1. speed

2. cost

3. quality