Marketing Research Study Guide

Marketing Research

EXAM: 1 QUESTION FROM EACH PART

No pre-testing slide 275-283

Skip 345, 346

No part 28

Not relevant:

Statistical tests

Structure of research report

ON EXAM:

Types of errors

Familiarize yourself with mini cases (total of 2-3)

Causality

Coding is important, but no software

Sampling is important

Measurements, scales etc

Descriptive statistics, central tendency how to measure etc.

Be familiar with titles of slides, they will be key indicators for what they are asking for each question

Part 1: Why Marketing Matters

Marketing Definition

• Action or business of promoting and selling products/services (market research and advertising)
• Change consumer habits: e.g. internet use
• Consumer demands for retail experiences [pic 1]

• Experience, uniqueness, interface, customer satisfaction

Why did Companies Start to Add Marketing Departments?

1. Conduct consumer research
2. Find leads
3. Prepare communication

Main Tasks of Marketing Manager

1. Analysis: know your customers needs
2. Planning: make a solution to meet their needs
3. Implementation: bring to market + communicate
4. Control: check effectiveness of solution

Create USP in the Eyes of the Customers

*USP = Unique selling proposition

[pic 2]

#2: Analysis/Planning

Maslow’s Hierarchy of Needs

What Need Category are you Addressing?

1. Need for success
2. Need for belonging
3. Need for power
4. Need for individuality

• Focus on customer (attitudes/needs) vs. product you want to push

Process

1. Why don’t customers buy?
2. Why do they buy?
3. Who are they?
4. How to implement our findings? (4 Ps: product, price, promotion, place)

Part 3: Marketing Definitions

• Marketing research: systematic/objective identification, collection, analysis, dissemination and use of information to:

1. Improve decision making to solve problems
2. Opportunities in marketing

• Provide accurate info that reflects true state of affairs
• Objective: Free of biases of research/management

• Systematic planning in all stages
• Uses information: define problem, find what info is needed to explore the problem. Identify relevant info sources, evaluate data collection/analysis methods
• Decision making: provide findings/recommendations in a useful format

Management Decision Problem

• New products
• Change advertising campaign
• Change price of product

• Investigate what decision maker has to do
• Action oriented
• Focus on symptoms

Vs. Marketing Research Problem

• Look at consumer preferences/purchase intentions for new product
• Effectiveness of current advertising campaign
• Price elasticity of demand, impact on sales/profits on levels of price changes

• What information is needed, how to obtain it
• Information oriented
• Focus on underlying causes

Two Approaches: Problem Identification and Problem Solving

1. Problem identification research

• Market potential/share/characteristics research
• Image research
• Sales analysis
• Forecasting
• Business trend

1. Problem solving research

• Segmentation research
• Product research
• Pricing research
• Promotion
• Distribution

Marketing Research: Mediator between Customer Groups + Marketing Managers

1. Customer groups: consumers, employees
2. Marketing manager: target market, market segmentation, marketing programs
3. Controllable marketing variables: 4 Ps
4. Uncontrollable environmental factors: economy, technology, laws

Requirements on Market Research

1. Objectivity

• Results have to be independent from marketing research
• Differentiate: objectivity in data collection, analysis and interpretation

1. Reliability

• Accuracy (in data collection etc.)
• Results: replicable, no measurement error
• Reasons for error: environmental conditions changed, measurement tool≠precise

• Consistent: multiple observers (inter-rate reliability), time (internal consistency, test-retest reliability, split-half reliability)
• Measurement device: similar results when repeated under identical conditions

1. Validity

• Accuracy (data collection, analysis)
• Differentiate: internal validity (exclusion of confounding factors), external validity (representative results)

*confounding: surprise/confusion in

Key Hallmarks: Relevance and Rigor

Relevance

• Marketing research relevance 🡪 focuses on factors that managers influence/examine
• Instrumental model of practice: formulate, test, validate a theory

Implications:

• Descriptive relevance: accuracy, reliability
• Goal relevance: bottom line, non-financial outcomes
• Operational validity: identify manageable/effective levers
• Non-obviousness: findings
• Timeliness: time gap b/w problem + solution

Rigor

• Careful design, execution, analysis, interpretation of results and retention of data
• Soundness: theory/concept development
• Methodological design/execution
• Interpretation of findings
• Findings 🡪 extend/develop theory

Implications:

• Conceptual rigor: treatment of relevant concept/theory, precise definitions, stringent argumentation
• Methodological rigor: research design appropriateness, sample appropriateness (e.g. representativeness), appropriate methods of analysis/statistics, reliability/validity of empirical findings, accuracy in reporting results

Experience Economy

Commodities 🡪 Goods 🡪 Service 🡪 Experience

• Observation: customers don’t buy products, they buy experiences
• Current trends: 

1. products/services are interchangeable 🡪 lack of function differences
2. demand for experiences [pic 3]

• Challenge: companies must stage customer experience 🡪 competitive advantage

Customer Experience Levers

Shopping environment, service personnel/service interface, experience across channels, social environment, product, brand

Customer Experience Outcomes

Sales, price premium, word of mouth, satisfaction, brand image, brand attachment

Customer Process

1. Customer Touchpoint

• direct/indirect encounter with a brand
• glance at 1 customer interaction

1. Customer Journey

• Flow of customer interactions over multiple touch points + points in time
• Perspective: cumulative customer interaction/experience

1. Customer Experience

• Total reaction to each direct/indirect contact with a company along the customer journey
• Considers: subjective, internal customer reaction

Factors to Consider:

1. Type of journey map (current state vs. target state)
2. Main actor (customer, employee, stakeholder)
3. Scope and scale (timeframe, level of detail)

Overview of Different Target Groups

For each target group:

1. How do we approach target group (customer touchpoints)
2. How to get customer to love us?
3. What to avoid? (pain points)

The Marketing Research Process

1. Research purpose: Problem Definition 🡪 What is the aim of the study?
2. Research Approach - best approach to realize the research purpose?
3. Role of Research Supplier: potential roles of research supplier?
4. Selection of data collection method: best form?
5. Sampling: target population, sampling approach?
6. Design of data collection method: most suitable method?
7. Collection of data: potential pitfalls when collecting the data?
8. Editing and coding of data: how is date best processed based on numeric codes?
9. Data analysis and interpretation: which methods to apply?
10. Presentation of the Results: best way to sell results?

Marketing Research Process #2

1. Define problem

Management decision problem vs marketing research problem

1. Develop approach to the problem

Theory, models, research question, hypotheses, info requirements

1. Formulate research design

Exploratory, descriptive, causal

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