1.

Qualitative research method: Qualitative research examines attitudes, feelings and

motivations of a group.
Qualitative research has its origin in the work of historian Grambattista Vico (18 th
century). Indian logicians have always emphasized intuitive understanding as much as
logical inference.

Qualitative research vary on many dimensions:

Dimensions Qualitative
Type of questions probing
Sample size Small
Information per correspondent much
Administration Interviewer needs special skills
Type of analysis subjective
Hardware Pictures, tapes discussion guideliness
Ability to replicate Low
Researchers training Psychology, marketing research
Type of research Exploratory
Qualitative research is about finding out not just what people think, but why they think it. It's
about getting people to talk about their opinions so you can understand their motivations and
feelings.

Face-to-face interviews and group discussions are the best way to get this kind of in-depth
feedback. With focus groups, you work with small samples of your target market, typically with
four to eight people. Or you could conduct one-on-one interviews.

Qualitative market research can be valuable when you are developing new products or coming up
with new marketing initiatives and you want to test reactions and refine your approach.

Before you go into production with a new line, it's vital to get your product into the hands of some
members of your target market: Ask them:

 Is it easy to use?
 Does it do what it's supposed to?
 Is the design appealing?
 Does it look as if it will stand out next to competing products in-store?
 Is the packaging working?
 Is the price right?

Getting clear results from qualitative research can be difficult. Some people may be positive just
to be polite, while others may dominate the discussion. Choosing the right person to interview
people or to moderate a group discussion is vital. Business owner/managers shouldn't run the
sessions themselves. It's vital to find an independent person to do the job, such as a professional
market researcher - that way, they'll remain unbiased and the interviewees will feel they can speak
honestly.A good moderator will run the session in an unstructured way. Answers should be
probed and proceedings should be recorded for analysing later. Body language and non-verbal
responses should be noted.

Qualitative research is useful for answering questions such as:

 what customers or prospects think and feel about your product or service?
 how they choose between different products or suppliers
 how branding, design and packaging influence them
 what sort of marketing messages have the most impact, and what turns them off
 how price affects decision-making.
 whether there is demand for a new product or service.

Qualitative research is about getting people to expand on their answers so that you can get more
insight into their attitudes and behavior. It's all about getting underneath people's responses to find
out what is driving their decisions.

The orientations to the qualitative research are as follows:

There are 4 techniques namely

 Phenmology: A philosophical approach to studying human experiences based on the idea

of that human experience is inherently subjective and determined by the context.
 Ethnography: it is the way of studying different cultures through methods which are
highly relevant
 Case studies: which is related to business research

Pros:

 More detailed: Qualitative research offers a deeper understanding, with the ability to
explore topics in more detail.
 Unprompted feedback: Open-ended questions facilitate unprompted responses, vital for
testing things where you don’t want to bias the outcome with prompts (such as for
unprompted brand recall).
 Taps consumer creativity: Generate ideas for improvements and/or extensions of a
product, line, or brand.
 Smaller sample needed: You don’t need to recruit as many participants.

Cons:
  Less measurable: With free text answers, it’s more difficult to quantify how many of your
audience answer one way or another, and the data set is less accessible for statistical
interrogation.
 Can’t generalize: Qualitative research does not give statistically robust findings, and you
therefore cannot generalize to your broader audience – although if followed up with quant
research this is easy to remedy.
 Not repeatable: Freeform interviewing makes it difficult to track changes over time.
 How to do quantitative research
 When you design a quantitative research survey all questions must be closed-ended, with
pre-defined answers. These can take a variety of forms:
 Dichotomous – “yes/no”
 Multiple-choice – select one or more options from a list
 Rank order scaling – reorder a list by, for example, order of importance or preference
 Rating scale – select a rating such as “satisfied” or “extremely satisfied”
 Semantic differential scale – select a number on a scale (i.e. 1-10)

2.Answer

Research Design is a detailed blueprint to guide a research study towards its objectives

 Research Approach
 Types of Research
 Exploratory: seeking insights into a problem no clear definition of hypothesis
 Descriptive: Provides an accurate snapshot of aspect of the market
 Causal: One variable determines the values of other variables

For this type of case we should use exploratory research

Exploratory research:

 Objective: Insights and flexible

 Characteristics: Front end of research design
 Methods: Expert surveys, pilot surveys section data , research

Research Tactics and Implementation:

 Measurement
 Sampling Plan
 Anticipating Analysis
 Analysis of value vs. cost and time
  Errors in Research Design

Preparing data for analysis:

 Data editing
- Interviewer errors, ambiguity, inconsistencies, lack of cooperation ineligible
respondent
 Coding
- Statistically adjusting data
 Weighting
- Variable recertification (data modified to create new variables)

(dummy variables)

 Scale transformation
 Standardization

Factors influencing choice of data analysis/ stat technique:

 Type of data (nominal /ordinal / interval)

 Research design
 Sample independence
 Number of groups
 Number of variables
 Variable control

Marketing Research Proposal:

1.Executive Summary and Background

2.Problem Definition / Objectives of Research

3.Approach to the problem

4.Research Design

5.Fieldwork / data collection

6.Data Analysis

7.Reporting

8.Cost and Time

9.Appendices
Procedure for developing a questionnaire:

 Specify what info will be sought

 Determine type of question and method of administration
 Determine content of individual questions
 Determine form of response to each questions
 Determine wording of each question
 Determine sequence of questions
 Determine physical characteristics of questions
 Reexamine the steps from 1-7
 Pretest and revise

Step 1: Information sought

 research questions and hypothesis

 dummy tables

Step 2: Type of questionnaire and method of Administration

 requires decisions on structure and disguised

 type of data
 culture of the society
 Step 3: Individual question content
 is the question necessary?
 several questions vs one
 do respondents have necessary info? (telescoping error, recall loss)
 will respondents give the information?
- hide the questions
- stating behavior is not unusual
- third person response
- category

4. Question wording

 item non response

 measurement error
 use simple words
 avoid ambiguous words
 avoid leading questions
 o Do you feel limiting taxes by law is an effective way to prevent your government
from pickpocketing your savings ? Yes--- No---
 avoid implicit alternative
o Would you like to have a job, if this were possible?
 avoid implicit assumptions
o Are you in favour of better control on classroom attendance?
 avoid generalizations and estimates
 avoid double barreled questions
 Question sequence
 simple interesting opening questions
 use funnel approach
 branching questions with care
- flow chart
- proximity
- respondent should not anticipate
 classification info at the end
 difficult questions towards the end

step-6: Physical characteristics

 securing acceptance
 facilitate handling

Marketing Research process consists of six broad steps:

 Problem identification and definition

 Determination of information needs
 Development of research plan/ design
 Data collection
 Analysis and interpretation
 Report writing
 Emphasis varies across organizations

Views of Marketing Managers:

 Absence of systematic method of doing Marketing Research

 Marketing Research should aid strategic thinking-not just collect data
 Focus should be explanatory and predictive
  Strategic vision can develop with continuous availability of data
 Organizational context of research is of paramount importance.

MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS:

 Provides a systematic, planned approach to the research project

 Ensures all aspects of the research project are consistent with each other

Overview of MR process:

 Why should we do research?

 What research should be done?
 Is it worth doing the research?
 How should research be designed to achieve research objectives?
 What will we do with the research?

The Preliminary Stages of MR Process

Step 1: Research Purpose

 Clarity critical, - to avoid failures

 Research Purpose comprises a shared understanding between manager and the researcher
of

1. Problems / opportunities to be studied

 problems or opportunities anticipated

 scope of the problems/possible reasons

2. Decision alternatives to be evaluated

 Alternatives
 Criteria for choice
 Timing / importance of decision

3. Research Users

 Decision makers
 Covert / overt purposes

Step 2: Research Objective

 Research objective is a statement in precise terminology of what information is needed

 Has three components
Research question

 Specifies the information the decision maker needs

 Several questions for a purpose
 Relevant to the purpose
 Helps research design

Hypothesis

 Is a possible answer to a research question

 Speculate on possible hypotheses
 Not a checklist. Opportunity to make research question specific

Guidelines for developing multi-item scale:

 Determine what you want to measure

 Generate as many items as possible
 Experts evaluation of initial pool of items
 Determine type of attitudinal scale to be used
 Include validation items
 Administer items to an initial sample
 Refine
 Optimize scale length

Choice of an attitudinal scale:

 specific info required to satisfy research objectives

 adaptability of scale to data collection method, budget
 compatibility to respondent