Chapter 10: Marketing Research

Objectives:

• Identify the five steps in the marketing research process,
• Describe the various secondary data resources,
• Describe the various primary data collection techniques,
• Summarize the difference between secondary data and primary data,
• Examine the circumstances in which collecting information on consumers is ethical.

I. The Marketing Research Process

Marketing Research: A set of techniques and principles for systematically collecting, recording, analyzing, and interpreting data that can aid decision makers involved in marketing goods, services, or ideas.

• Step 1: Defining Objectives and Research Needs
• Step 2: Designing the Research
• Step 3: Data Collection Process
• Secondary Data: Pieces of information that have already been collected from other sources and usually are readily available. Include both external and internal data sources.
• Primary Data: Data collected to address specific research needs. 
• Focus Groups
• In-Depth Interviews
• Surveys
• Sample: A group of customers that represent the customers of interest in a research study.
• Step 4: Analyzing Data and Developing Insights
• Data: Raw numbers or facts
• Information: Organized, analyzed, and interpreted data that offer value to marketers. 
• Step 5: Action Plan and Implementation
• A typical marketing research presentation includes:
• Executive Summary
• The Body of Report
• Includes research Objectives
• Methodology
• Detailed Findings
• Conclusions
• Appropriate Supplemental Tables
• Figures
• Appendixes

II. Secondary Data

• Inexpensive External Secondary Data
• US Census Data
• Google Searches
• Syndicated External Secondary Data
• Syndicated Data: Data available for a fee from a commercial research firm
• Scanner Data: A type of syndicated external secondary data used in quantitative research that is obtained from scanner readings of UPC Codes at check-out counters.
• Panel Data: Information collected from a group of consumers. 
• Internal Secondary Data
• Data Warehouses: Large computer files that store millions or billions of pieces of individual data.
• Data Mining: The use of a variety of statistical analysis tools to uncover previously unknown patterns in the data stored in databases or relationships among variables.
• Churn: The number of consumers who stop using a product or service, divided by the average number of consumers of that product or service. 

III. Primary Data Collection Techniques

Quantitative Research: Informal research methods, including observation, following social media sites, in-depth interviews, focus groups, and projective techniques.

Qualitative Research: Structured responses that can be statistically tested to confirm insights and hypotheses generated via qualitative research or secondary data.

• Observation: An exploratory research method that entails examining purchase and consumption behaviors through personal or video camera scrutiny.
• Social Media
• Sentiment mining: Data gathered by evaluating customer comments posted through social media sites such as facebook and Twitter.
• In-Depth Interviews: An exploratory research method technique in which trained researchers ask questions, listen to and record the answers, and then pose additional questions to clarify and expand on a particular issue.
• Focus Group Interviews: A research technique in which a small group of persons (usually 8-12) comes together for an intensive discussion about a particular topic with the conversation guided by a trained moderator using an unstructured method of inquiry.
• Survey Research
• Survey: A systematic means of collecting information from people that generally uses a questionnaire. 
• Questionnaire: A form that features a set of questions designed to gather information from respondents and thereby accomplish the researcher's objectives; questions can be either structured or unstructured.
• Structured Questions: Closed ended questions for which a discreet set of response alternatives, or specific answers, is provided for respondents to evaluate.
• Unstructured Questions: Open-ended questions that allow respondents to answer in their own words. 
• Developing a Questionnaire is Part Art and Part Science
• Panel and Scanner Based Research
• Experimental Research: A type of conclusive and quantitative research that systematically manipulates one or more variables to determine which variables have a causal effect on another variable. 
• Advantages and Disadvantages of Primary and Secondary Research
• Secondary Research
• Examples
• Census Data
• Sales Invoices
• Internet Information
• Books
• Journal Articles
• Syndicated Data
• Advantages
• Saves time in collecting data because they are readily available
• Free or inexpensive ( except for syndicated data)
• Disadvantages
• May not be precisely relevant to information needs.
• Information may not be timely.
• Sources may not be original, and therefore usefulness is an issue. 
• Methodologies for collecting data may not be appropriate.
• Data sources may be bias.
• Primary Research
• Examples
• Observed Consumer behavior
• Focus group interviews
• Surveys
• Experiments
• Advantages
• Specific to the immediate data needs and topic at hand.
• Offers behavioral insights generally not available from secondary research.
• Disadvantages
• Costly
• Time consuming
• Requires more sophisticated training and experience to design study and collect data.

IV. Emerging Technology and the Ethics of Using Customer Information

• Biometric data: Digital scanning of the behavioral or physiological characteristics of individuals as a means of identification.