1. Marketing Research: Gather, Analyze, and Use Information
Chapter 4
Marketing Research: Gather, Analyze, and Use Information

2. Chapter Objectives
Explain the role of the marketing information system and the marketing decision support system in marketing decision making
Understand data mining and how marketers can put it to good use
List and explain the steps and key elements of the marketing research process
Appreciate the importance of high ethical standards in marketing research
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3. Real People, Real Choices: Decision Time at Plan-It Marketing
What marketing research strategy would maximize results of the research within a reasonable budget?
Option 1: Conduct exploratory qualitative study
Option 2: Conduct quantitative survey of 700+ leisure and business travelers
Option 3: Conduct viability study with both qualitative exploratory study and confirmatory quantitative study
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4. Knowledge Is Power
Accurate, up-to-date, relevant information is the fuel that runs the marketing engine
Understanding consumers’ value needs is essential to creating/delivering a value proposition
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5. Knowledge Is Power
Marketing information systems: Determine what information marketing managers need, then gathers, sorts, analyzes, stores, and distributes information to system users
Marketing information systems include multiple components
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6. Figure 4.2 The Marketing Information System
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7. Internal Company Data
Internal data: Information from within the company to produce reports on the results of sales and marketing activities
Intranet: Internal corporate communications network that links company departments, employees, and databases
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8. Marketing Intelligence
Marketing intelligence systems: Method by which marketers get information about everyday happenings in the marketing environment
Example: Monitoring the Internet and using “mystery shoppers”
Futurists specialize in predicting consumer trends
Get the scoop on mystery shopping!
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9. It’s Debatable Class Discussion Question
Faith Popcorn, the 1990’s “Nostradamus of Marketing” according to Fortune magazine, is a well-known pop culture futurist. Visit her Web site and view one or more of the Trend Bank videos.
Put yourself in the position of the consumer goods marketer of your choice. How will this trend impact the marketing of your brand? Will it have a positive impact or a negative impact? Why?
NOTE: Instructors may wish to “skip the intro” to the Web site by clicking the link at the bottom right hand side of the screen as it loads.
It may useful to follow up on a visit to the Brain Reserve Web site by sharing the following Los Angeles Times article with students, “Faith Popcorn’s predictions five years later,” currently available online at
The article shows that while some Faith’s 2003 trend predictions were dead on (food coaches who help individuals and families develop healthy eating habits; enhanced focus on grooming and male vanity products among heterosexual males manifesting in salons that cater to men), others were big misses (transcouture: teenage rejection of brand name fashions; baby cloning and genetic alternation).
Visit Faith Popcorn’s BrainReserve
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10. Marketing Research
Market research: Collecting, analyzing, and interpreting data about customers, competitors, and the business environment to improve marketing effectiveness
Syndicated research
Custom research
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11. Acquired Databases
External databases can be used to collect a variety of information from different sources
Non-competing businesses
Government databases
Misuse of databases can be problematic and has led to do-not-call lists and antispam laws
The census offers great free information
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12. Marketing Decision Support Systems
Marketing decision support systems: Data plus analysis and interactive software that allows managers to conduct analyses and find the information that they need
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13. Figure 4.3 The Marketing Decision Support System
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14. Searching for Gold: Data Mining
Data mining: Includes sophisticated analysis techniques to take advantage of the massive amount of transaction information now available
Analysts sift through data to identify unique patterns of behavior among different customer groups for use in behavioral targeting
A Web site which instructors may wish to visit during class for additional information regarding behavioral targeting can be found at Although this site markets a commercial consulting firm, it also offers an overview of behavior targeting and two brief case studies that can be viewed online of how Fortune 500 companies used behavioral targeting to meet their objectives.
However, all is not rosy on the behavioral targeting horizon. Although three of the four major ISP providers are arguing in favor of self-regulation of behavioral target efforts, as of September 2008, Congress was investigating protests that “ensued when ISPs ran trials of a targeted ad service from the Web tracking company NebuAd last year without user consent.” SOURCE: Kean, Megan, “Large ISPs Endorse Behavioral Targeting Guidelines” Wired, September 26, 2008 (retrieved from October 28, 2008).
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15. It’s Debatable Class Discussion Question
The popularity of social network sites such as MySpace, Facebook, Second Life, and others has been growing tremendously.
Under pressure to increase revenues, Facebook now allows marketers to create brand pages, which after being viewed by a user, feeds directly to that person’s “friends.” Does this move to viral marketing violate the privacy of Facebook’s users? Will it hurt membership?
Advertising on Facebook
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16. What Marketers Can Do with Data Mining
Data mining applications in marketing:
Customer acquisition
Customer retention and loyalty
Customer abandonment
Market basket analysis
An interesting question to raise is “When” does an online customer “abandon” merchandise? While most students would assume abandonment occurs the moment a user leaves a Web site without committing to a transaction after items are placed into a shopping cart, some online merchants take a longer view by allowing items to remain in shopping carts indefinitely, with the hope that consumers will return later to purchase.
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17. Steps in the Marketing Research Process
Step 1: Define the research problem
Specifying research objectives
Identifying consumer population of interest
Placing the problem in an environmental context
Defining the research problem often proves to be the most difficult phase of the process, and further explanation may help to clarify this portion of lecture. One point that can be made is that thinking in terms of “problems” may be misleading. Often marketing research is undertaken for the purpose of understanding how to best capitalize upon an opportunity.
The second point to be made is that if the firm is indeed investigating a “problem” from the perspective that something is wrong (a new brand is not meeting it’s sales goals), researchers must be careful not to confuse symptoms of the problems (low sales, low market share) with the cause of the problem itself, or they may end up investigating the wrong phenomena. For example, the real cause of poor sales might stem from inadequate distribution, improper positioning, the wrong pricing strategy, or a badly designed product or package.
Burke Research Video
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18. Steps in the Marketing Research Process
Step 2: Determine the research design
Determine whether secondary data are available
Determine whether primary data are required and if so, what type:
Exploratory research
Descriptive research
Causal research
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19. Figure 4.5 Marketing Research Designs
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20. Secondary and Primary Research
Secondary data:
Have been collected for some purposes other than the problem at hand
Guideline.com (industry and trend reports)
Dialog.com (sorts firms by location, size, industry)
Lexisnexis.com (information database)
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21. Secondary and Primary Research
Primary data:
Information collected directly from respondents to specifically address the question at hand
Look-Look employs an army of “coolhunters” to report on the latest trends
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22. Exploratory (Qualitative) Research
Exploratory research techniques generate insights for future, more rigorous studies
Typically involve in-depth consumer probing
Take many forms:
Consumer interviews
Focus groups
Productive techniques
Case studies
Ethnography
One form of exploratory research is ethnography. There are several methods by which data can be collected: 1) sending a consumer observer/researcher into stores, work places, and homes to observe real behavior; 2) giving subjects a video camera to record consumer interactions with the target product; or 3) having consumers record their behavior in a diary. The ethical ramifications of doing disguised research (e.g., the consumer doesn’t know he or she is being studied) might create an interesting discussion when considering whether observation takes place in a store, work environment, or the subject’s home.
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23. Descriptive (Quantitative) Research
Descriptive research studies:
Probe systematically into the problem
Base conclusions on large numbers of observations
Typically expresses results in quantitative terms (averages, percentages, other stats)
Cross-sectional design
Longitudinal design
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24. Causal Research
Cause-and-effect relationships: A change in one thing causes a change in something else
Independent (cause) vs. dependent (change in outcome) variables
Experiments test predicted relationships among variables in a controlled environment
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25. Steps in the Marketing Research Process
Step 3: Choose the method for collecting primary data
Survey methods are used to interview respondents
Questionnaires:
loosely, moderately, or completely structured
Observational research methods
Online research
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26. ? Questionnaires Mail questionnaires Telephone interviews
Face-to-face interviews
Mall intercept
Online questionnaires
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27. Observational Methods
Observation: Data collection method where the researcher records consumers’ behaviors, often without their knowledge
Personal observation
Mechanical observation
Unobtrusive measures
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28. Observation Methods
Students are often incensed to learn that garbologists may be looking through their trash for physical evidence of some type of consumption behavior. Many think this tactic should be illegal, but of course it is not. It could be worthwhile to underscore to students that any information left on your curb for trash collection pick up is fair game for anyone to pick through. Although this point is not directly related to research, it could be helpful to students to stress that they need to shred bills or any information containing credit card numbers, social security number, or any other details that could result in identity theft.
Unobtrusive measures such as Garbology look for physical evidence that remains after some action has been taken
Wireless users at the Connection Court are easily observed
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29. Online Research Types of online research:
Gathering information via consumer surfing
Gathering information via Web site/ /chat room questionnaires/focus groups
Online research used as part of:
New-product development
Estimating market response
Exploratory research
IM and focus groups
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30. Data Quality: Garbage In, Garbage Out
How much faith should marketing managers place in research? Three key considerations include:
Validity
Reliability
Representativeness
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31. Figure 4.6 Completion Test
Obtaining accurate information from children can be very difficult. To encourage kids to express their feelings, researchers used this completion test. Boys were asked to write in the balloon what they think the boy in the drawing will say when the girl asks, “What program do you want to watch next?”
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32. Step 4: Design the Sample
Probability sampling:
Each member of the population has some known chance of being included
Sample is representative of population, and inferences about population are justified
Types of probability sampling:
Simple random sampling
Systematic sampling
Stratified sampling
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33. Step 4: Design the Sample
Nonprobability sample
Personal judgment used in selecting respondents
Some members of population have no chance of being included so sample is not representative of population
Types of nonprobability sampling
Convenience sampling
Quota sampling
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34. Step 5: Collect the Data
Challenges to gathering data in foreign countries include:
Differences in sophistication of research operations
Infrastructure/transportation challenges
Lack of phones and/or low literacy rates
Local customs and cultural differences
Language translation difficulties
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35. Step 6: Analyze and Interpret the Data
Data must be analyzed and interpreted to be meaningful
Tabulation:
Arranging data in a table or other summary form to get a broad picture of overall responses
Cross-tabulation:
Examining the data by subgroups to see how results vary between categories
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36. Step 7: Prepare the Research Report
Research reports typically contain the following sections:
Executive summary
Description of research methodology
Discussion of results including tabulations, cross-tabulations
Limitations of study
Conclusions and recommendations
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37. Ethics in Marketing Research
Marketing research ethics: Taking an ethical and above-board approach to conducting marketing research that does no harm to the participant in the process of conducting the research
Researchers must provide full disclosure of confidentiality and anonymity options
Ethics in marketing research actually touches on three broad areas: 1) the relationship between the researcher and client; 2) the relationship between the research and research subjects; and 3) the relationship between the researcher and the marketing research industry.
Example:
Researcher/client and research/subject ethical dilemma: Client asks for a list of firms that responded to a survey, along with the questionnaires that contain the actual responses, but the researcher has promised anonymity and confidentiality to the participating firms. What does he or she do?
See for a couple of other scenarios.
Web site of interest: Council of American Survey Research Organization’s Code of Standards for Survey Research:
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38. Real People, Real Choices: Decision Made at Plan-It Marketing
Cindy chose option 3, conducting both qualitative and quantitative research
Implementation: Concept design was refined using input from qualitative research; quantitative study of 700 business and leisure travelers confirmed viability of Priceline’s business model concept
Measuring success: Used total unduplicated reach and frequency analysis
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39. Keeping It Real: Fast-Forward to Next Class Decision Time at (RED)
Meet Julie Cordua, VP Marketing - (RED)
(RED) works with international brands to make unique products and directs up to 50% of gross profits to the Global Fund.
The decision to be made: Is partnering with mass market international brands the optimal way to generate money for the Global Fund?
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40. Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall
All rights reserved. No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, without the prior written permission of the publisher. Printed in the United States of America.
Copyright © 2009 Pearson Education, Inc.  
Publishing as Prentice Hall
Copyright 2009 Pearson Education, Inc. Publishing as Prentice Hall