marketing chapter 5

marketing research

involves collecting interpreting and reporting info to address clearly defined marketing problems

goal of marketing research

help companies understand and satisfy the needs and wants of customers

importance of marketing research to firms

as markets continue to become globalized, product life cycles continue to become shorter and markets continue to change rapidly

importance of marketing research to individuals

consumers rely on companies to develop and market goods/services that they need/want

why do we need mis

in this information rich age, companies want info systems that give managers access to the right info, in the right form, at the right time to help them create customer value and strengthen relationships

marketing information system

consists of the people, technologies, and procedures aimed at supplying an organizations marketing info needs

sources of info for mis

-in house systems

-decision support systems (DSS)

-online systems that support social media sites, allow companies to collect and analyze huge amounts of data

- internet enables researchers to conduct a variety of research, such as surveys, focus groups, and social media website monitoring

-internal company data (largest source of data a company has) helps organize and make sense of data in order to make them useful for marketing purposes

-companies systematically gather competitive intelligence about what direct/indirect competitors are doing in terms of new product development and their marketing mix

marketing research process

well defined set of 5 steps that yield invaluable info concerning a firms market and its competition

5 steps of marketing research process

1. define the problem

2. develop a plan

3. collect data

4. analyze the data

5. present results and take action

define the problem (step 1)

firm clarifies the exact nature of the problem

• specify the research objectives

• define the consumer population of interest

• identify relevant contextual factors

develop a plan (step 2)

identifying what type of research to do: exploratory, descriptive, or casual

• specifying what info is needed

• determining what type of research techniques may be used to acquire it

• presenting this research plan to management

collect data (step 3)

begins with the firms decision to use secondary or primary data

• primary data - collected by various qualitative techniques such as focus groups, interviews, observations, quantitative techniques such as surveys and experiments

• secondary data - may already reside in the companies mis or may be obtained from outside sources like the internet

• sampling - marketing researchers to obtain feedback from a subset of the population that is representative of the population as a whole

analyze the data (step 4)

converting the data into information that will be useful to marketers

• the culmination of the research is a formal, written report to decision makers that includes an executive summary, research objectives, method used, findings, and recommendations about how the firm should take action

present results and take action (step 5)

data visualization enables marketing researchers to present data and research results in pictorial or graphical format, which helps uncover new patterns in data and grasp difficult to understand concepts

importance of global marketing research

-unfamiliar nature of foreign markets

-companies can learn about consumer behavior in other regions by using local marketing research companies

-political, legal, sociocultural, technological factors influence whether a company product can be successfully marketed in a particular country

social media for research

largest change in online research has come from the ever increasing volume of user generated content associated with social media

neuromarketing techniques

use of insights and tools from neuroscience to better understand consumer responses to different kinds of marketing stimuli

-neuroscience “toolbox” consists of imaging technologies, such as fMRI or EEG, that directly measure brain activity

-includes variety of methods for measuring behavioral and physiological responses to marketing stimuli, such as eye tracking, facial expression coding, core biometrics (heart rate, respiration, skin conductance), and implicit response testing

main ethical issues of conducting marketing research

1. increasingly powerful computer capabilities available to companies allow for collection, storage, and analysis of data from millions of consumers

2. misuse of research methods and findings

3. firms may be compelled by clients to return findings favorable to the client or arrive at a conclusion predetermined by client

4. marketing orgs (American marketing association, marketing research association, ESOMAR) concerned with reliability of search restyles and have set up ethical standards for conducting research

quantitative research

survey based and experiments, can be done quickly low cost but uncertainty ab how well sample represents population

qualitative research

focus groups, depth interviews, ethnographic research, observation research. results difficult to measure objectively, sample sizes can be small and poor interpretation

big data

describes both the growth in information that inundates businesses each day and the complex tools used to analyze the data and derive meaningful insights

primary data

data collected specifically for the research problem at hand

secondary data

information collected for alternative purposes prior to the study

constraints

data analytics

analyzing raw data to make conclusions