Marketing Plan and Research

What Is Marketing Research?

• Marketing Research:
– marketing information may be collected
» by a firm
» by a research supplier
» from a marketing information system
– involves the development, interpretation, and
communication of information to support strategic
marketing
– links customers and firm through information
– identifies and defines marketing opportunities and
problems
– refines and evaluates marketing actions
– monitors marketing performance
– improves understanding of marketing as a process
 What Does Marketing Research Do?
• Marketing Research:
– specifies the information required to answer specific Q
» Market potential, market share, and market characteristics
» Analyze sales and competitors’ products
– designs method for collecting information
– manages and implements data collection process
– analyzes the results
– communicates findings and implications
– Advances in technology
– Participants in the marketing research process
 Types of Research
• Qualitative research
– growing in popularity
• Survey
– questionnaire to a sample of respondents
– produces quantitative data
• Observation
– collecting data usually without knowledge of
the subject
• Experimentation
– manipulation of one of more variables to
observe the effect
 Marketing Research Process

• Define the Research Objective

• Conduct Situation Analysis

• Conduct Informal Investigation

• Plan and conduct formal investigation

• Analyze Data and Report Results

• Conduct follow-up
 Voice of the Customer
• Quality Function Deployment
• Customer needs linked to product attributes
• Important that other areas (other than marketing)
are involved in research
• Cooperation/communication across disciplines
leads to greater new product success and profits
• Perceptions of customer needs used to understand
how product characteristics affect customers
• House of quality (First) links customer needs to
design attributes
• Design attributes linked to actions the firm can take
 Voice of the Customer
• Actions to implementations
• Implementations to production planning
• Customer needs
–How many? How do we identify them?
–Basic, articulated, and hedonic needs
–Primary, secondary, and tertiary needs
–Importance of need
–Customer perception of performance of existing
products
 Laddering Process

• Laddering
–Technique that traces linkages
–Between a consumer’s values
–And the product attributes
• Basic model
• Expanded model
• Example
Next
 The Basic Model

Attributes

Consequences

Values

Back
 Expanded Model
Terminal
Values
Instrumental
Values
Psychological
Consequences

Concrete Abstract Functional

Attributes Attributes Consequences
Back
 Back
Example of Expanded Model
Self-respect

Healthy, better Psychological

Terminal
Values appearance Consequences

Instrumental Don’t get fat

Values
(Unattractive)

Flavored Strong Eat Less

Chip Taste
Concrete attribute Abstract attribute Functional consequences
 Symptoms Versus Problems
• Twenty-year old neighborhood swimming
association in a major city
–Symptoms: Membership has been declining for
years. New water park with wavepool and
water slides moved into town a few years ago.
–PD based on symptoms: Neighborhood
residents prefer the expensive water park and
have negative image of swimming pool.
–True Problem: Demographic changes; children
in this 20 year old neighborhood have grown
up. Older residents no longer swim.
 Symptoms Versus Problems

• Mobile phone manufacturer

–Symptoms: Distributors complain prices are too
high
–PD based on symptom: Investigate industrial user
to learn how much prices need to be reduced.
–True problem: Sales management; distributors do
not have adequate product knowledge to
communicate product’s value.
 Symptoms Versus Problems

• Brewery
–Symptoms: Consumers prefer the taste of
competitors brand.
–PD based on symptoms: What type of
reformulated taste is needed?
–True problem: Package; old-fashioned
package influences taste perception.
 Symptoms Versus Problems

• Sunflower oil
–Symptom – margins are low
–PD based on symptoms - Should we
reduce costs or increase prices
–True problem – advertising has been
reduced for a number of years. People do
not remember much about the brand
 Management Versus Marketing

• Example 1:
–Mgmt: Should a new product be introduced?
–Mktg: To determine consumer preferences and
purchase intentions for the proposed new
product.
• Example 2:
–Mgmt: Should the advertising campaign be
changed?
–Mktg: To determine the effectiveness of the
current advertising campaign.
 Management Versus Marketing
• Example 3:
–Mgmt: Should the price of the brand be
increased?
–Mktg: To determine the price elasticity of demand
and the impact on sales and profits of various
levels of price changes
• Example 4:
–MGMT: Should we change the packaging?
–MKTG: Determine what benefits need to be
communicated and does old packaging succeed?
 Zappos

• How does Zappos create value for its customers?

– Zappos has made customer service one of its core
competencies
• What are the key aspects of Zappo’s corporate
culture?
• Can a company stay profitable by being customer
centric? Is Zappos’s business model sustainable?
 Google

• What is Google’s core business? What are the pros

and cons of managing a diverse portfolio of
businesses?
• With a portfolio as diverse as Google’s, what are the
company’s core brand values?
– To organize the world’s information and make it universally
accessible and useful
• What’s next for Google? Where should the company
focus its resources?
 Marketing Plan

• Generally, evolves from the business plan

• Three key functions
– Describes the company’s goals and course of action
– Informs the relevant stakeholders about the goal and
action plan
– Persuades the decision makers of the viability of the goal
and the proposed course of action
 Marketing Plan

• Format
–Executive summary
–Situation overview
–Goal
–Strategy
–Tactics
–Implementation
–Control
 Situation overview

• How did we reach here?

• What did we do till now?
• What worked?
• What failed?
• What are the ongoing activities?
 Goal

• What do we want to achieve?

–Market share?
–Leadership
–New market?
–New segment?
–New product?
–Premium
 Strategy

• STP
– Segmentation, targeting and positioning
• We need to know our target market
• We need to know our competition
• We need to know our collaborators
• What resources do we have?
• What value are we able to create?
 Tactics

• What are we offering to the market?

• Obviously the 4 Ps are important
• Within the 4 Ps, decisions about each and
every aspect
– Color, shape, taste, sound, feel, smell
– Same for each of the 4 Ps
 Implementation and Control

• Process used to take the product to the market

• Evaluate the progress and make changes
• When environment changes, what changes should
we make