Marketing Research Lecture 1

Transcription

1 Marketing Research Lecture 1 DEFINITION: Marketing research: Marketing research is the business function that links an organisation to its markets through the generation of information that facilitates optimal solutions to decision problems. DEFINITION: Market: Consumers with different/heterogeneous needs and wants. Principal tasks involved with conducting market research: - Establishing the boundaries of the research - Deigning the research - Executing the research - Communicating the result of the research Decision Problems and Market Research: Decision problem is a situation in which management has to decide on a course of action that will help to accomplish a specific objective. Marketing research is the function for generating interpretable information that is accurate, relevant and timely to solve decision problems. SWOT Analysis: Strengths Opportunities Weaknesses Threats What often appears to be a problem may just be a symptom of the true problem. When decision problem identified, need to determine scope for marketing research - Can marketing research information tell the decision-maker something not already known? - Will it provide significant insights? - How valuable is the marketing research information once it s collected Marketing research should only be conducted when value of research > cost There is a growing complexity of market research - Digital technologies: Neuro-marketing, hybrid research techniques to overcome weaknesses of single research methods/technologies. Transforming Data to Information: Primary/secondary data, consolidated/structured (tables, graphs, figures), managerial interpretations (story telling) Marketing Research Phases: 1. Determine the scope for marketing 2. Select Research method 3. Collect and prepare the data 4. Analyse the data 5. Transform the results into information Marketing Research Proposal: Contains the essence of the project. It serves as a contract between the researcher and the management. It is also an official layout of the planned marketing research activity for management. Format of arresting research proposals vary considerable, but most proposals address all steps of the marketing research process. Ethics in Marketing Research: Unethical Marketing Research: - By the Researcher: Unethical pricing, failure to fulfil the promise, respondent abuse, selling unnecessary service - Within the execution of the research design: Falsifying data, duplicating data, manipulating data inappropriately - By the client: Report gathering, false promise - By the respondent: Dishonest answers, faking behaviour - Sample from many researches, then developing their own Marketing Decisions: Growing complexity around marketing research and making marketing decisions - Technological advances, growing internet usage driving developments in marketing research - Growing emphasis on the collection, analysis and interpretation of existing data

2 - Increased use of gatekeeper technology - Expansion of firms to global markets opening new cultural, social and changing market considerations - GIGO: Garbage in, garbage out Marketing Research Process: Development and successful promotion of goods and services involves: Understanding consumer decisions, carefully planning through a sound marketing research process Planning: Identifying problem and scope Scope of Marketing Research: 1. Defining the decision problem 2. Specifying the research question 3. Defining the research objective 4. Evaluating the likely benefit of the expected information Defining the Decision Problem: Decision problem is a situation in which management has to decide on which course of action to take. What should we do now? Which is the best option? Inadequate decision problem is the leading cause of failure of marketing research projects The truly serious mistakes are made not as a result of wrong answers but because of asking the wrong questions Defining the decision problem includes five interrelated activities: 1. Determine the decision-maker s purpose for the research 2. Understand the complete problem situation 3. Identify measurable symptoms 4. Determine the unit of analysis 5. Determine the relevant variables or constructs Defining the Decision Problem: Decision problem is a situation in which management has to decide which course of action to take Inadequate decision problem is the leading cause of failure of marketing research projects Five Steps to Define the Decision Problem: 1. Determine the decision-maker s purpose for the research 2. Understand the complete problem situation 3. Identify measurable symptoms 4. Determine the unit of analysis 5. Determine the relevant variables or constructs *S.M.A.R.T objectives* Specifying the Research Question: Redefine and reformulate the decision problem into research questions(s) Decision problems broken down into an overreaching research question, or a series of specific research questions Research questions are those specific when, where, who, why, what and how statements about the problem areas that the research will attempt to investigate Research questions have to be specific and measurable Example: RACV The RACV in Victoria has employed you to determine: which factors are most likely to persuade customers to switch from RACV to AAMI for car insurance how satisfied current RACV customers are with these factors. What are some of the marketing research questions that are relevant?

3 RACV research question example Which factors do consumers consider important when they are deciding whether to commit to a particular car insurance policy? How satisfied are customers with these factors at RACV? How satisfied are customers with these factors at AAMI? Are there any importance satisfaction gaps at either RACV or AAMI? Are RACV customers willing to switch? Defining the research objective: A blueprint of the research project s activities Precise statements of what the research project will achieve Specification of information required to assist in management s decision-making capabilities Allows to document concise, measurable and realistic events Some fundamental questions in defining research objectives Can complete data be collected at all? Can the information tell me something I don t already know? Will the information provide significant insights? What benefits will be delivered from this information? Benefits of the expected information: Need for information Can the decision-making problem be resolved without any further research effort? Can the research question(s) be answered immediately (without collecting data)? Nature of the decision Both strategic and tactical decisions are critical to a company s operations and bottom-line profitability objectives Does the problem situation have strategic or tactical importance? Availability of data Does adequate information for addressing the defined decision problem already exist? Does new data need to be collected? No need to collect new data, if company and external data is available, or can be accessed or purchased from other companies. Advances in technology and cross-functional sharing of information provides great amount of operation data (e.g. sales, costs and profitability by products, brands, sales region, customer groups) Time constraints: Decision-makers may need information in real time but, in many cases, systematic research that is required to deliver high-quality information is time-consuming Is there enough time to conduct the research? Resource requirements: Availability of marketing resources (e.g. money, staff, skills, facilities) is a key consideration Is money budgeted for formalised research? Cost versus benefits Marketing research should be conducted only when the expected value of the information to be obtained exceeds the cost of obtaining it Does the benefits of having the information outweigh the costs of gathering the information? Costs of doing marketing research can be estimated with some certainty, and mostly objective in nature Predetermining the managerial value of the expected information remains subjective in nature. Should you conduct the research? If conducting the research may give competitors the opportunity to formulate competitive responses If research findings may not be implemented (affordability, big change, staffing, etc.) If research design does not represent reality If critical variables of the study cannot be properly defined or measured If research is politically motivated

4 Scope of secondary data: Secondary data is historical in nature and already assembled or published. Secondary data is available in many different forms Examples include existing research, data tables, full text, summary, statistics, broadcast video streams (TV ads or news reports), online and offline databases. The researcher determines whether useful secondary data already exists, the relevance of the data and how to obtain the data. Types of secondary data: Internal secondary data is data collected by a company for business purposes or marketing activity reports on customer knowledge. External secondary data consists of data collected by outside agencies such as the government, trade associations, reports, industry white papers, magazines, audits, consumer panels and marketing research firms. Secondary data research tasks: Secondary data often is the starting point in defining the research that needs to be conducted. Provide historical background and reveal existing information Analyse existing growing and stored data Internal secondary data collection plays a significant support role for sales presentations decision-making functions cases where documentation for necessary primary research activities is required. Reasons for a literature review: Clarify and define the research problem and research questions Suggest research hypotheses to investigate Identification of scales and constructs required for the study Identification of well-established and successful research methodologies to study the problem at hand Limitations of secondary data: Prior data manipulation Render data unfit for present purpose Data relevancy The time period of the collection The categories of definitions The unit of measures Data accuracy(trustworthiness) Consistency across sources

5 Source credibility, appropriateness of methodology and source bias Internal secondary data sources: Internal data can be used to analyse: product performance customer satisfaction distribution effectiveness target market strategies Internal data also is useful for planning: new-product introductions product deletions promotional strategies competitive intelligence customer service tactics External secondary data: Sources include: published data in periodicals, directories or indexes data compiled by an outside (syndicated or commercial) agency that can be acquired on an asneeded basis for a nominal fee data contained in online databases or available through computer-facilitating agencies or vendors The major challenge associated with external data sources lies in finding and securing the appropriate source for extracting the data Planning for external secondary data: The problem is not finding out whether information exists; it is finding out where the information resides Most secondary information is not categorised in any particular form. The GO-CART approach Establish goals Develop objectives Define specific information characteristics Outline specific research activities Establish reliability Document using tabulation mechanisms Sources of secondary data: Government documents ABS reports and census data, CIA fact book Australian and New Zealand Standard Industrial Classification (ANZSIC) codes for compilation and analysis of industry statistics Single source data A large secondary data base which is collected from a single source, i.e. a single respondent. The Roy Morgan Research Centre interviews people annually on issues such as demographics, media habits, finance, tourism. Syndicated sources Companies that collect and sell common pools of data (i.e. market share, ad effectiveness, sales tracking) of known commercial value designed to serve a number of clients Neilson Reports and Studies IBISWorld Industry Research Reports Internet as source of secondary data: The internet has made secondary data more accessible and detailed than previously Increased utilisation of websites, blogs and search engines Caution needs to betaken Quality of the information Reliability of the information

6 Lecture 2 - Interviews and Focus Groups Marketing Research Data: Management is quite often faced with problem situations where important questions can not be adequately address or resolved with only secondary data Need to collect primary data for meaningful insights Primary data typically collected using set of formal procedures which researchers question or observe individuals and record their findings Quantitative Research: Places heavy emphasis on using formalised, standard questions and pre-determined response options in questionnaires administered to large numbers of respondents. Applicable for descriptive and casual designs Researchers trained in questioner design, construct development, scale measurement, sampling and statistical data analysis Quantitative = less questions Goals of Quantitative Research: Make accurate predictions about relationships between market factors and behaviours Gain meaningful insights into those relationships Validate existing relationships Test various hypothesises Qualitative Research: Gain preliminary insights into decision problems and opportunities Methods include: probing, interviews, open-ended or unstructured questions, observation, feedback Preliminary insights are sometimes followed up with quantitative research to verify qualitative findings Applicable for exploratory research designs - when objectives focus on fining background information, defining terms and establishing research priorities Qualitative = more questions Advantages Economical and timely data collection Richness of the data Accuracy of recording marketplace behaviours Preliminary insights into building models and scale measurements Lack of generalisability Disadvantages Inability to distinguish small differences Lack of reliability Difficulty finding well-trained investigators, interviews and observers

7 Qualitative Vs. Quantitative Research: Research goals/ objectives Qualitative Discovery and identification of new ideas, thoughts, feelings; preliminary insights on, and understanding od ideas and objects Interviews in Qualitative Research: Formalised process in which a well-trained interviewer asks a subject a set of semi-structured questions in a face-to-face setting At home, office, centralised interviewing centre, product location, purchase location, random locations etc. Also referred to as in-depth or one-on-one Hybrid interviews: Combination of internet and phone interviewing Internet enables consumers to be exposed to visual and audio stimuli Quantitative Validation of facts, estimates, relationships, predictions Type of research Normally exploratory designs Descriptive and casual designs Type of questions Open-ended, semistructured, unstructured, deep probing Mostly structured Time of execution Relatively short time frames Usually longer time frames Representativness Type of Analysis Researcher skills Generalisability of results Small samples, limited to the sampled respondents Debriefing, subjetive content, interpretive, semiotic analysis Interpersonal communications, observations, interpretive skills Very limited; only preliminary insights and understanding Large sample, normally good representation of target populations Statistical, statistical procedure and translation skills; and some subjective interpretive skills Scientific, statistical procedure and translation skills; and some subjective interpretive skills Usually very good; inferences about facts, estimates of relationships In-depth Interviewing Objectives: To discover preliminary insights of what the subject thinks or believes about the topic of concern or why the subject exhibits certain behaviours. To obtain unrestricted and detailed comments that include feelings, beliefs or opinions that can help better understand the different elements of the subject s thoughts and the reasons why they exist. To have the respondent communicate as much detail as possible about his or her knowledge and behaviour towards a given topic or object In-depth Interviewing Techniques: Collection of attitudinal and behavioural dialogue through probing questions When an interviewer takes the subject s initial response to a question and uses that response as the framework for the next question (the probing question) in order to gain more detailed responses Interpretations of the dialogue to create theme categories and insights In-depth Interviewing: Advantages Flexibility to collect data on activities and behaviour patterns, and attitudes, motivations and feelings. Large amount of detailed data possible The possibility to probe the respondent further Disadvantages Lack of generalisability Inability to distinguish small differences Lack of reliability and validity Potential for biases to emerge Potential interviewer errors Costs and time

8 In-depth Interviewing steps: 1. Understand the decision problem and research objective 2. Create a set of appropriate questions 3. Decide on the best interview environment 4. Screen and select suitable prospective subjects 5. Contact subjects, provide guidelines, create comfort zone, begin interview 6. Conduct the in-depth interview 7. Analysis the subjects narrative responses 8. Write summary report Types of Interviews: Experience interviews Protocol interviews Articulative interviews Projective interviews Word association tests Sentence completion tests Picture tests Thematic appreciation test (TAT) Cartoon or balloon tests Role-playing activities Zaltman Metaphor Elicitation Technique (ZMET) Experience Interviews: Interviews that refer to informal gatherings of individuals thought to be knowledgeable on the issues Quickly gather information that can be used to develop future research topics Example If a company like Procter & Gamble has a research problem that deals with estimating future demands for its newly created website, the company could begin by contacting several website experts and asking their opinions on the issues Protocol Interviews: Process where subject is placed in a decision making situation and is asked to express the process and activities undertaken to make a decision Provides insights and understanding of motivational or procedural activities or both within the overall decision process Example Asking Dell customers to talk through the steps and activities they went through in the PC purchase decision Articulative Interviews: Interviews that focus on listening for and identifying key conflicts in a person s orientation values toward goods and services Structured to elicit narratives as opposed to gaining factual truths Example Researchers can identify different meanings and interpretations of words, products and advertisements based on feedback Projective Interviews: Indirect method of questioning that enables a subject to project beliefs and feelings onto a third party, into the task situation or an inanimate object. To learn more about the respondents in situations where they might not reveal their true thoughts in a direct questioning process The researcher uses the findings to look for hidden meanings and associations Focus Groups in Qualitative Research: A formalised process of bringing a small group of people together for an interactive, spontaneous discussion on one particular topic or concept Usually 6-12 people are guided by a moderator through an unstructured discussion that may typically occupy one to three hours.