Chapter Four - Market Research
Information
information : Information must be based on data that is o accurate - Up to date : relevant
Knowledge is Power
: Information is the fuel that runs the marketing engine * Successful market planning depends upon informed decision making - Developing marketing objectives - Selecting target markets . Positioning products o Developing 4 P's strategies
Customer Insights and Marketing
* Goal of the marketing insights function - transform data into information : Data are raw unorganised facts o Information in interpreted data : More complicated than it sounds - Massive amounts of data o Much data is unstructured o Functional silos
The Marketing Information System (MIS)
Internal Company Data
Marketing Intelligence
Marketing Research
Acquired Databases
Computer Hardware and Software
Information for Marketing Decisions
Internal company data, information gathered via marketing intelligence or marketing research activities, and information found via searching databases
The Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS)
Marketing Manager Decision Maker
Interactive Software
MIS Data
Internal company data Marketing intelligence Market research Acquired databases
Information Needed for Decision Making
Statistical and
Modeling Software
Address problems that are too vague or unusual for an MIS to answer easily. Statistical and modelling software tools "What if" Questions
MIS, MDSS, and Customer Insights
information! - A firm's MIS stores and analyses data from a variety of sources . A firm's MDSS makes it easier to access the MIS and find answer to specific "what-if" questions
Data Quality
: Validity - extent to which the research measures what it was intended to measure Reliability - extent to which research measurement techniques are free of errors : Representativeness - extent to which consumers in the study are similar to the target of interest
Steps in the Market Research Process
1. Define the problem o Specify the research objectives o Identity the consumer population of interest - Place the problem in an environmental context 2. Determine the research design o Choose between secondary and primary research - Primary research: : Gaining better understanding of problem - Identifying new opportunities
Often qualitative in nature - Focus groups : Market research online community : Case studies - Ethnographic studies - Descriptive research : A large sample of participants as base : Quantitative data : Design: : cross-sectional design involves the systematic collection of quantitative information from one ore more samples of respondents at one point in time : Longitudinal design tracks the responses of the same sample of respondents over time o Causal research - Attempts to understand cause-and-effect relationships - Factors that might cause a change are independent variables while the variables that are affected are dependent variables : Experimental design allows researchers to control possible explanations for the effect 3. Choose the method to collect primary data: : survey : observation - New technologies: neuromarketing, virtual stores 4. Design the Sample o Accurate representation of population is important to avoid a biased sample . Probability samples : Each member of the population has an equal and known chance