Professional Documents
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Is important because of
Rapid changing
marketing environment; Need for up-to-date information for strategically important areas; Importance of research as an integral part of better operation.
MARKETING RESEARCH
information that marketing managers need in making decisions. Information may also be generated by various components of the Marketing Information System (MIS) consisting of a series of interactive components (Figure 1.1). There are four subsystems of the MIS: internal reports, marketing intelligence, marketing research, and marketing decision support.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION
Internal Reporting System INFORMATION Marketing Managers 1. Assessment of Needs 2. Distribution Marketing Intelligence System
Marketing Environments
An Analytical Marketing System
oriented. Whether to conduct marketing research depends on the managers experience and wisdom; nature of decision situation [repetitive or atypical]; degree of uncertainty; and the value and importance of the research. Marketing research may not be necessary if:
Information is available/outcomes known. Insufficient time for marketing research. Non-availability of resources. Cost Vs Value of the Research. Outcomes known.
MARKETING RESEARCH
MAIN DIVISIONS OF
1. Market and Sales Research 2. Product Research 3. Price Research 4. Distribution (Place) Research 5. Promotion Research.
Preliminary
Conclusive
Performance
Types of Research II
Combinations of types such as applied qualitative
research, basic primary research are common A sample of questions commonly answered by conducting primary applied research include:
What price should we charge for our product? What distribution channels should be used? How well does the product match up with the competitors product? How effective is the companys advertising? How will the consumers receive this new product? What percentage of market penetration does Product X have? What is Product Xs image in the consumers mind?
Uses a smaller number of individuals and observes them for a time span of between 1 and 2 hours. -----soft approach
marketing research.
It is also called survey research. Involves the use of questions and large number of respondents within a brief span of time, say 15 to 45 minutes. Its purpose is very specific-- e.g. a nationwide survey on the Road Pricing System for cars. The hard approach to marketing research.
are common and constitute the marketing research process . This process:
is an well-organized sequence of ten steps involved in the systematic collection and analysis of marketing data. provides a description of how a marketing investigation is designed and implemented, and helps to guide the execution of a research project. is interactive, a researcher may not follow the ten steps exactly in the order presented here.
research:
A problem well-defined is half solved Nature of the problem determines the type of study to conduct. Symptoms, for example, declining sales, profit, market share, or customer loyalty are not problems.
opportunity-related. For both, the prerequisite of defining the problem is to identify and diagnose it.
Problems may become apparent from: deviation from the business plan, company records and reports, customer complaints and grievances, conversations with company employees, and observation of inappropriate behavior or conditions in the firm; the success of the firms competitors, and published materials reporting issues such as, changes in market or environmental trends, new government regulations, anticipated changes in the economy, etc.)
Conduct some initial fact finding to determine the nature of the true problem. Talk to others about the problem and conducting a preliminary literature search on the topic.
broad and general form only. This may restrict the research program from being comprehensively designed. Both the researcher and the marketing manager (or the research client ) need to work together to formulate the problem into a precise and definite statement. This fact-finding exercise helps the researcher to refine his educated guess to a more accurate problem statement.
If you do not know what you are looking for, you wont find
it
the problem definition. In establishing research objectives, the researcher must answer the following questions:
i) What specific information should the project provide? ii) If more than one type of information will be developed from the study, which is the most important? and finally, iii) What are the priorities? When specifying research objectives, development of hypotheses, might be very helpful.
When achieved, objectives provide the necessary
QUALITATIVE RESEARCH
QUANTITATIVE RESEARCH
4.After defining the problem the researcher must determine what kind of information will best meet the research objectives.
is to design the data collection instrument or questionnaire in a manner so that it is easily understood by the respondent and administered to them.
Step 7: Decide on the sampling design. Step 8: Manage and implement the data collection.
If interview method is used, the researcher must train interviewers and develop procedures for controlling the quality of the interviewing. [This is not necessary if survey methodology is used, where the research instruments are completed by the respondents. ]
the method used may be manual or computer based. The analysis plan follows from the research objective of the study. Association and relationships of variables are identified and discussed in the light of the specific marketing problem.
In conducting all the marketing research activities; the marketing researchers must adhere to ethical standards.
the researcher must define the scope of the problem during the initial investigation, and try to determine probable cause-and-effect relationships between the variables by answering the following questions: What is (are) the symptom(s) that indicate(s) that there is (are) a problem (s)? What is (are) the likely cause(s) of the problem? What information will be needed to find a solution to the problem? What possible course(s) of action may be taken if information is available?
A relationship between two (or among several) variables. Each variable is operationally defined, A population for the research is implied or identified.
(I) the relationships that are described; (ii) how the conclusion seems to be have gone down? is reached, and (iii) gone down compared to what?
When image is referred to, what does it mean? The number of customer that frequent the store? The number of complaints lodged by customers? The stores market share? Or what? Similarly, what does gone down actually mean? Is it referring to reduction in the number of people frequenting the store? Or what? Finally, what population is being implied? Does it refer to all sales to all customers or particular types of customers?
operations needed to measure the variable in question. A term may not have only one, universal meaning. In the statement, I want to buy a car, the variable car is not operationally defined.
A car may mean, among others, a sedan, a sports car, a pick-up or a mini van; it may also refer to an American, or a Japanese built car. Hence just saying car could be misleading.
(i) causes some other factor(s) to vary, and (ii) may assume different numerical values. Price is a variable since it can cause sales levels to vary and may assume different numerical values. A Construct is a variables with special interpretation. Constructs are concepts that are deliberately invented or adopted for a special scientific purpose. In statistical analysis, a variable is generally identified by a symbol, such as X or Y. If a researcher is using SPSS, or other computer packages, he or she may use the name of the variable itself or its abbreviated form e.g., age marstat (for marital status), occupn (for occupation), etc.
Classification of Variables
1.Categorical or Classificatory Variables:
have a limited number of values, e.g., gender (male or Female) , marital status (married, single, widowed/ widower) etc. have an infinite number of values, e.g., temperature, sales in $ or number, profit in $. Variables expected to be predicted or explained. Variables that are expected to influence, predict or explain another. For example, in the following relationship: Income (I) = F (Age, Level of education), Income is a dependent variable; Age and Level of education are independent variables. An independent variable is something that the researcher can control.
2.Continuous variables:
3. Dependent Variables:
4. Independent Variables:
Marketing Researchers
Marketing Constructs
Operational definitions
Attitudes towards brands Number of people with positive, negative or neutral feeling Brand Awareness Percent of respondents that have heard of the brand Brand familiarity Consumers that have tried or seen the brand Brand loyalty How many times the respondent bought (used) the product Comprehension of product benefits Respondents opinion as to what the product does to them Demographics Respondents age, sex, marital status etc. Past purchase or use Percent of respondents that bought(used) the product/service Psychographics How consumers think and behave Purchase intention Number (%) of respondents planning to buy a product Reach The number (%) of households exposed to an advertisement schedule during a given period of time. Satisfaction How the respondents evaluate the performance of the product or the service
RESEARCH PROPOSAL I
A research proposal a plan showing step by step description of how a proposed research project will be undertaken. reflects the researchers understanding of the problem and ability to conduct the research.
If the research is to be conducted through a research
Upon its acceptance, the research proposal becomes the basis for the contract or agreement between the research agency and the client, and serves as a record of what was agreed on.
RESEARCH PROPOSAL II
There is no fixed or standard format for a research
proposal as it is dependent on the nature of the specific research project. However, most research proposals contain the following items.
1. Introduction 2. Statement of the Marketing Problem 3. Specification of the Research Objectives 4. Details of the Proposed Research Plan 5. Time schedule 7. Research team