Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Descriptive Research 84
Classification of Descriptive Research Studies 84
Causal Research 85
Experiments 86
Experimental Design 87
How Valid Are Experiments? 89
Types of Experiments 89
Test Marketing 90
Types of Test Markets 91
Selecting Test Market Cities 91
Pros and Cons of Test Marketing 92
Qualitative Research 92
Methods of Conducting Qualitative Research 93
Observation Techniques 93
Types of Observation 93
Direct Observation 94
Indirect Observation 95
Disguised Versus Undisguised 95
Focus Groups 95
How Focus Groups Work 95
Advantages of Focus Groups 96
Disadvantages of Focus Groups 96
When Should Focus Groups Be Used? 96
When Should Focus Groups Not Be Used? 96
Depth Interviews 96
Protocol Analysis 97
Projective Techniques 97
Word-Association Test 97
Sentence-Completion Test 98
Cartoon or Balloon Test 100
Role-Playing Activity 100
Ethnographic Research 101
Summary 101 • Key Terms 102 • Review Questions 103
• Application Questions 103
Chapter 10 Data Issues and Inputting Data into XL Data Analyst 224
Data Matrix, Coding Data, and the Data Code Book 226
Errors Encountered During Data Collection 226
Types of Nonresponse Errors 227
Refusals to Participate in the Survey 228
Break-Offs During the Interview 229
Refusals to Answer Specific Questions (Item Omission) 229
Preliminary Data Screening 230
What to Look for in Raw Data Inspection 230
Incomplete Response 230
Nonresponses to Specific Questions (Item Omissions) 230
Yea-Saying or Nay-Saying Patterns 230
Middle-of-the-Road Patterns 231
Other Data Quality Problems 232
How to Handle Data Quality Issues 232
What Is an “Acceptable Respondent”? 232
Introduction to Your XL Data Analyst 232
The Data Set and Data Code Book Are in the XL Data Analyst 233
Case Data Sets and Building Your Own XL Data Analyst Data Set 234
Special Operations and Procedures with XL Data Analyst Data Sets 235
Selecting Subsets of the Data for Analysis 235
Computing or Adding Variables 235
Summary 236 • Key Terms 236 • Review Questions 236
• Application Questions 237
Endnotes 366
Credits 383
Indexes 384
Preface
xv
xvi PREFACE
A Concise Presentation
We wanted to provide a book with the basics of marketing research. Adopters have told us they
want to teach the basics of marketing research in depth as opposed to covering a large amount
of material superficially. Many professors desire to teach a course with less text material,
allowing them to supplement the course with projects or to spend more time on the basics. Basic
Marketing Research: Using Microsoft® Excel Data Analysis is shorter in length but covers the
essential, basic components of marketing research. We made every effort to write a shorter book
without sacrificing knowledge on what we consider the “basics.”
New Examples
In every chapter we searched for new examples for opening vignettes that would wake the
students’ interest and understanding of marketing research. Several of these vignettes were sup-
plied from our professional contacts in the marketing research industry. Several of them reflect
current marketing research practice. In addition to these all-new chapter-opening vignettes, new
examples, many from marketing research industry sources, are integrated throughout the text.
Datasets
In addition to the Advanced Automobile Concepts dataset (AAConcepts.xlsm), we have a dataset on
retail store target marketing, Case 14.1, “Friendly Market Versus Circle K” (Friendlymarket.xlsm).
Chapter 10 describes how students can set up their own datasets, such as those obtained with a team
marketing research project, in the XL Data Analyst.
Teaching Aids
PowerPoint Presentations (0135078261)
A comprehensive set of PowerPoint slides that can be used by instructors for class presentations
or by students for lecture preview or review.
1
Please note that not all test questions will indicate an AACSB category.
PREFACE xix
It takes many people to create a book. First, we wish to acknowledge the expert assistance we
have received from the professional staff at Pearson Prentice Hall. First, we thank our editor,
Melissa Sabella. Meeta Pendharkar served as our Editorial Project Manager. Meeta, you could
not have been more helpful, thank you! Also, thank you to Elisabeth Scarpa our Editorial Assis-
tant and Becca Richter Groves, our Production Product Manager. We owe Becca a very special
thank you for her capable assistance. We have been with Prentice Hall now for over a decade and
we are forever grateful we found such a great partnership. The entire Prentice Hall staff is cour-
teous and professional. Thank you all for being so good at what you do!
In the 3rd Edition we again benefited from the capable experience of Heather Donofrio,
Ph.D. Heather has been involved in different aspects of helping with our textbook for several
years. Her highly qualified editorial assistance is reflected throughout this book. We also wish to
thank Ashley Roberts who cheerfully and professionally helped us with many tasks during the
preparation of this book.
We both enjoy keeping up with industry trends and practice through our extensive con-
tacts in the marketing research industry. The following professionals made contributions to
the 3rd Edition:
Baltimore Research—Ted Donnelly
Burke, Inc.—Ron Tatham
Decision Analyst—Jerry W. Thomas
ESRI—Brent Roderick & Lisa Horn
Experian Simmons—John Fetto
Inside Research—Jack Honomichl & Laurence Gold
Intercampo—Luis Pamblanco
Ipsos Forward Research—Richard Homans
Ipsos Public Affairs—Paul Abbate
Moore Research Services—Colleen Moore-Mezler
MRA—Kristen Darby
NewProductWorks, GfK Strategic Innovation—Marilyn Raymond and Penny Wamback
Ozgrid Business Applications—Raina Hawley
QRCA—Shannon Pfarr Thompson
Qualtrics, Inc.—Scott M. Smith
SDR Consulting—William D. Neal
Socratic Technologies—William H. MacElroy
Sports & Leisure Research Group—Jon Last
Survey Sampling International—Kees de Jong, Ilene Siegalovsky
Talking Business—Holly M. O’Neill
TNS Global/Retail & Shopper Practice—Herb Sorensen
United States Census Bureau
xxi
xxii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS
We’d like to thank the professors who took part in our focus groups and shared their ideas
for this text and XL Data Analyst:
Reviewers
Brian Buckler Avila University
Aslihan Cakmak Lehman College
Doug Grisaffe University of Texas at Austin
Steven Moff Pennsylvania College of Technology
Mike Petrochuk Walsh University
Emanuel Stein Queensborough Community College, CUNY
James Swartz California State Polytechnic University-Pomona
Diane Whitney University of Maryland-College Park
As always, we wish to thank our life partners who put up with our book writing exploits and,
no matter what, always smile. Thank you, Jeanne and Libbo, for your steadfast support of our pro-
fessional endeavors.
Al Burns
Louisiana State University
alburns@lsu.edu
Ron Bush
University of West Florida
rbush@uwf.edu
About the Authors
Alvin C. Burns is the Ourso Distinguished Chair of Marketing and Chairperson of Marketing in
the E.J. Ourso College of Business at Louisiana State University. He received his doctorate in
marketing from Indiana University and an MBA from the University of Tennessee. Professor
Burns has taught undergraduate and master’s level courses and doctoral seminars in marketing
research for over 35 years. During this time period, he has supervised a great many marketing re-
search projects conducted for business-to-consumer, business-to-business, and not-for-profit or-
ganizations. His articles have appeared in the Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Business
Research, Journal of Advertising Research, and others. He is a Fellow in the Association for Busi-
ness Simulation and Experiential Learning. He resides in Baton Rouge, Louisiana, with his wife
Jeanne and Yellow Labrador Retriever, Shadeaux (it’s a Louisiana thing).
Ronald F. Bush is Distinguished University Professor of Marketing at the University of
West Florida. He received his B.S. and M.A. from the University of Alabama and his Ph.D. from
Arizona State University. With over 35 years of experience in marketing research, Professor Bush
has worked on research projects with firms ranging from small businesses to the world’s largest
multinationals. He has served as an expert witness in trials involving research methods, often
testifying on the appropriateness of research reports. His research has been published in leading
journals including the Journal of Marketing, Journal of Marketing Research, Journal of Advertis-
ing Research, Journal of Retailing, Journal of Business, among others. In 1993 he was named a
Fellow by the Society for Marketing Advances. He and his wife, Libbo, live on the Gulf of Mexico
where they can often be found playing “throw the stick” with their Scottish Terrier, Maggie.
1 An Introduction
to Marketing Research
W e wish to welcome you to the world of marketing research! Any time business managers
need to make decisions and they lack adequate information, they are likely to need mar-
keting research. In our opening vignette, Jon Last, CEO of Sports & Leisure Research, collects
marketing research information that is needed by magazine executives, advertisers, manufactur-
ers of sports equipment, and service providers such as the lodging and restaurant business to make
better decisions. In this chapter we introduce you to marketing research by (a) examining how
marketing research is a part of marketing, (b) exploring definitions, purposes, and uses of mar-
keting research, (c) learning how to classify marketing research studies, and (d) providing you
with an understanding of how marketing research fits into a firm’s marketing information system.
You will find in this book a successful statistical analysis software program that is easy to
use and interpret. The program runs off Microsoft’s Excel® spreadsheet program, so as long as
you have access to Excel® you will be able to use this. We have developed XL Data Analyst™ to
allow you to easily tap the power of Excel for purposes of marketing research analysis.
Because marketing
Now, we will show you why you conduct marketing research analyses by introducing you to research is part of
the field of marketing research. marketing, you cannot
fully appreciate
marketing research and
Marketing Research: Part of Marketing? the role it plays in the
marketing process
Before we discuss marketing research, we need to first discuss marketing. The reason is, marketing unless you know how it
fits into the marketing
research is part of marketing, and you cannot fully appreciate marketing research and the role it plays
process.
in the marketing process unless you know how it fits into the marketing process. What is marketing?
3
4 CHAPTER 1 • AN INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING RESEARCH
The American Marketing Association [AMA] has defined marketing as an organizational function
and a set of processes for creating, communicating and delivering value to customers and for man-
aging customer relationships in ways that benefit the organization and its stakeholders.1
This definition recognizes that marketing is an organizational function. The other basic
functions of business include production, finance, and human resources. It also recognizes that
marketing is a set of processes that creates something of value such as products and services,
communicates or promotes the value, and delivers or distributes the value (which includes the
notion of pricing) to consumers. This definition recognizes the domain of marketing, namely,
the four Ps (product or service; promotion, distribution (also known as “place”) and pricing).
This definition also recognizes that marketers need to manage customer relationships. This
means it is not wise for a marketer to think of a one-time transaction. “Making the sale” is not
the end of marketing if marketers want repeat buying and positive word-of-mouth promotion
of their products and services. In addition, the AMA definition points out that marketing is car-
ried out for the benefit of the organization and its stakeholders. A for-profit organization, for
example, must earn a respectable return on investment (ROI) in order to remain in business.
For many years marketing focused on providing the customer with value through a physi-
cal product that emerged at the end of the distribution channel. Marketing managers focused on
creating a physical product and then making efficient promotion, distribution, and pricing deci-
sions. Current thinking, proposed primarily by Vargo and Lusch,2 calls for a framework that goes
beyond a “manufacturing-tangible product” view of marketing (e.g., Ford creates value by
building cars). Rather, Vargo and Lusch argue that we should adopt a service-centered view of
marketing which (a) identifies core competencies, the fundamental knowledge and skills that
may represent a potential competitive advantage; (b) identifies potential customers who can ben-
efit from these core competencies; (c) cultivates relationships with these customers, allowing
them to help create values that meet their specific needs; and (d) allows one to gauge feedback
from the market, learn from the feedback, and improve the values offered to the public.
One implication of this new framework is that firms must be more than customer oriented
(making and selling what firms think customers want and need). Rather, firms must collaborate
with and learn from customers, adapting to their changing needs. A second implication is that
products are not viewed as separate from services. Isn’t Ford really marketing a service, a service
that happens to include a by-product called a car?3 This framework is referred to as the service-
dominant logic for marketing.
We do not wish to provide a discourse on how marketing thought is evolving. After all, we
are still trying to answer the question: Why do we need to know about marketing in order to better
Why do we need
to know about marketing understand marketing research? The answer is, in order to practice marketing, marketing decision
in order to better makers need information in order to make better decisions. And, in our opinion, current defini-
understand marketing tions and frameworks of marketing mean that information is more important, not less important,
research? The answer is, in today’s world. For example, the service-dominant logic for marketing implies that decision
in order to practice
makers need information to know what their real core competencies are; how to create meaningful
marketing, marketing
decision makers need relationships with customers; how to create, communicate, and deliver value to customers; how
information in order to to gather feedback to gauge customer acceptance; and how to determine the appropriate responses
make better decisions. to the feedback. Keeping these information needs in mind, think about the information needed by
Ford, as the company prepared to produce the Fusion hybrid to compete with the Prius and other
successful hybrids already on the market; or by the managers at Sony, as they decided to go head
to head with Apple with an online service to compete with iTunes®; or at Apple as they prepared
Current definitions and
frameworks to launch the iPhone and the iPad. Think about all the decisions managers made at General Mills
of marketing mean that when they launched their successful organic food line, Small Planet Foods, or how the managers
information is more at CBS’s highly watched television show, 60 Minutes, have continued to make good decisions
important, not less regarding their broadcasts year after year. The same applies to not-for-profits such as the American
important, in today’s
Red Cross, which earns donations and support by creating value in the sense that it provides
world.
donors with “piece of mind for helping others.” In order to make the decisions necessary for
MARKETING RESEARCH: PART OF MARKETING? 5
such actions, the decision makers in these organizations needed information. As you will learn,
Not all firms “hear the
marketing research provides information to decision makers. voice of the consumer.”
The phrase “hearing the voice of the consumer” has been popularized to mean that compa- They do not conceive of
nies have the information they need to effectively satisfy wants and needs in the marketplace. products or services that
While we just cited some successful firms, we recognize that not all firms hear this voice. They meet the needs and
do not conceive of products or services that meet the needs and wants of the market. They do not wants of the market.
provide value, and their sales come from short-term exchanges, not enduring customer relation-
ships. These companies produce the wrong products or services. They have the wrong price, poor
advertising, or poor distribution. Then they become part of the many firms that experience prod-
uct failure. The Irridium telephone needed 500,000 customers to break even yet attracted only
50,000 subscribers.4 General Motors’s first electric vehicle, the EV1, was a failure. McDonald’s
veggie burger, the MacLean, was taken off the market.
The GfK Strategic Innovation’s NewProductWorks® studies product failure in order to help
clients glean ideas for successful new innovations. For example, a firm introduced scrambled
frozen eggs in a push-up tube. The eggs came with cheese, bacon, or sausage and the idea was
to quickly heat it up and take it with you for a convenient, eat-on-the-go breakfast. You could
have eggs and bacon while driving to work! Although this sounded great in the board room,
IncrEdibles were taken off the market as buyers found the eggs often ended up in their lap as
they tried to push up another bite. There was inadequate information on how real consumers
would use the product. Out! International, Inc. came up with what sounded like a cute name for
a new bug spray: “Hey! There’s a Monster in My Room!” What information did the company How can a marketer
fail to pick up on? The name alone scared kids when Mommy told them there was “a monster in know and understand
how to deliver value to
the room!” The product failed. Marketing Research Application 1.1 illustrates other examples
the customer so well?
of product failures supplied to us from the marketing researchers at NewProductWorks®. The answer is, by
Of course, it is easy to play “Monday morning quarterback” and keep in mind that all these having information
companies have many successful products to their credit. Peter Drucker wrote that successful about consumers. So to
companies are those that know and understand the customer so well that the product conceived, practice marketing
correctly, managers
priced, promoted, and distributed by the company is ready to be bought as soon as it is available.5
must have information,
Drucker is on target with his statement, but how can a marketer know and understand how to and this is the purpose
deliver value to the customer so well? The answer, as you can now see by our examples, is by of marketing research.
having information about consumers. So to practice marketing correctly, managers must have This is why we say that
information, and this is the purpose of marketing research. This is why we say that marketing marketing research is a
part of marketing;
research is a part of marketing; it provides the necessary information to enable managers to market
it provides the necessary
ideas, goods, and services properly. But how do you market ideas, goods, and services properly? information to enable
You have probably already learned in your studies that you must begin by having the right phi- managers to market
losophy, followed by proper marketing strategy. We call that philosophy the “marketing concept.” ideas, goods, and
services properly.
Practical Application lightly carbonated iced coffee beverage. Customers were will-
ing to try it once, based on the Starbucks name alone, but the
Ice Breakers Pacs went into distribution in November
drink failed to encourage repeat sales.
2007. Pacs were small, dissolvable pouches with a
One question is whether it was the carbonation or the coffee
flavored-powder sweetener, in orange and cool mint fla-
that put consumers off. It is true that premium coffee sales have
vors. By January 2008, The Hershey Company stopped the
boomed and carbonated beverages are still a mainstay in the U.S.
marketplace, and Coke saw
that in Japan the combination
of coffee and carbonation
was popular. Causes for fail-
ure may include (a) consumers
in the United States were not
ready to accept the taste;
Ice Breakers Pacs (b) there may have been some
confusion as to when and
production in response to criticism that the mints looked
how this type of blended bev-
too much like the tiny heat-sealed bags used to sell pow-
erage could meet the needs
dered illegal street drugs (cocaine). Hershey stated the
currently being provided by
mints were not intended to resemble anything of the sort.
coffee and soda separately;
CEO David West disclosed the decision to stop produc-
and (c) perhaps consumers
tion: “We are sensitive to these viewpoints and thus have
love their coffee and they love
made the decision that we will no longer manufacture
their colas, but they don’t
Ice Breaker Pacs.” What seemed like a breakthrough,
want a combination. Would
innovative way to deliver a mint form turned out to be the
better information, prior to
opposite when consumer behaviors toward safety (for
Coca-Cola C2 the launch of Blak, have been
self, community, world) made this product unacceptable
helpful?
to the marketplace. Would better information as to the
Coca-Cola spent an esti-
market’s reaction to the packaging been helpful?
mated $30 to $50 million to
Introduced in April 2006, Coca-Cola’s Blak entered the
promote C2, a cola-flavored
U.S. marketplace as a carbonated fusion beverage, a taste
beverage introduced first in
blend of Classic Coke and coffee “essence.” Coke spent two
Japan, then later in the
years developing Blak in hopes of
United States in June 2004,
making inroads into consumers’ grow-
in response to the low-
ing taste for coffee and a booming
carbohydrate diet trend. This
premium beverage market, targeting
was Coca-Cola’s biggest
over-thirty, savvy, sophisticate-achiever
product launch since Diet
consumers. Weak product performance
Coke in 1982. Despite this
in the United States resulted in its being
support, C2 (as well as
discontinued seventeen months after
its competitor Pepsi Edge)
launch. Coke would have benefited by
failed to meet sales expecta-
taking a look at more information on
tions and was pushed out a
product history in this category. Blak
year later. This failure is due
was not the first of its kind; similar
mostly to the decline of the
blends were released in the past and
low-carb fad, and partly to
failed as well. In 1994, Pepsi began to
the success of Coca-Cola
test-market a soda called Pepsi Kona, Wolfgang Puck’s Self-Heating
Zero, a zero-calorie version
which tasted more like coffee than Latte
launched within the same
soda. In 1995, Starbucks partnered
time frame. Zero-calorie beverages had already been
with Pepsi and began to market a cof-
established, and with the advancement in the taste of
Coca-Cola Blak fee product called Mazagran. It was a
MARKETING RESEARCH: PART OF MARKETING? 7
sweeteners, the combined effect made reduced-carb bever- from stores nationwide after complaints of faulty technology,
ages obsolete. ranging from the product’s failure to reach an appropriately hot
Sources reported the Wolfgang Puck self-heating coffee temperature to it actually overheating, and spurting or leaking
containers technology took ten years and $24 million to develop. product from the can. While self-heating and self-chilling tech-
The self-heating can technology is by OnTech and is based on a nology could help meet the needs of many on-the-go con-
two-part container. The outer chamber holds the beverage and sumers, any future use of an improvement in the technology will
the inner chamber holds calcium oxide and a water puck, which have to face an even higher hurdle to regain consumers’ trust.
when its seal is broken mixes with the calcium oxide and creates
a heating effect. Launched in the spring of 2005, the product was Visit NewProductWorks® at www.gfkamerica.com.
quickly picked up for distribution by Kroger, Albertsons, and
Sam’s Club. Less than a year later, Puck’s namesake company Source: NewProductWorks®, the innovation resource center of GfK
demanded brand-licensee BrandSource Inc. to pull the products Strategic Innovation (formerly Arbor Strategy Group).
Kotler and Keller characterize the marketing concept as one that “senses and responds. The
job is not to find the right customers for your products, but to find the right products for your
customers.”7 They define the marketing concept as follows:
The marketing concept is a business philosophy that holds that the key to achieving orga-
nizational goals consists of the company’s being more effective than competitors in creating,
delivering, and communicating customer value to its chosen target markets.8
For many years, business leaders have recognized that this is the “right” philosophy.
Although the term marketing concept is often used interchangeably with other terms such as
Although the marketing
customer oriented or market driven, the key point is that this philosophy puts the customer first.
concept is often used
Time has proven that such a philosophy is superior to one in which company management interchangeably with
focuses on production, the product itself, or some promotional or sales gimmick. If you satisfy other terms such as
consumers, they will seek to do business with your company. Thus, we’ve learned that having customer oriented or
the right philosophy is an important first step in being successful. Still, just appreciating the market driven, the key
point is that this
importance of satisfying consumer wants and needs isn’t enough. Firms must put together the
philosophy puts the
“right” strategy. customer first.
segment(s) should we target? Which model of a proposed product will best suit the target mar-
The bottom line of this
discussion is that to ket? What is the best price? Which promotional method will be the most efficient? How should
make the right we distribute the product/service? In order to make the right decisions, managers must have
decisions, managers objective, accurate, and timely information; and, because environments are forever changing,
continuously need marketers constantly need updated information about them. A strategy that is successful today
information. may need to be changed as the competitive, economic, social, political, legal, global, and tech-
nological environments change. Therefore, the bottom line of this discussion is that to make the
right decisions, managers continuously need information. As we shall learn next, marketing
research supplies much of this information.
Each of these definitions is correct. Our definition is shorter and illustrates the process of
marketing research. The AMA’s definition is longer because it elaborates on the function (we call
it the purpose) as well as the uses of marketing research. Note that market research, a part of mar-
keting research, refers to applying marketing research to a specific market area. One definition of
market research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data with respect to a
Market research refers
to the systematic particular market, where market refers to a specific customer group in a specific geographic
gathering, recording, area.10 The Marketing Research Association (MRA) defines market research as “the process used
and analyzing of data to define the size, location and/or makeup of the market for a good or service.”11 Notice the focus
with respect to a on a geographical market area. The MRA defines marketing and opinion research in a manner
particular market,
consistent with the way we have defined marketing research: “a process used by businesses to
where market refers
to a specific customer collect, analyze and interpret information used to make sound business decisions and successfully
group in a specific manage the business.”12 In the next two sections, we will talk more about the purpose and uses of
geographic area. marketing research.
us that the information provided by marketing research for decision making should represent the
consumer. In fact, by mentioning the consumer, this implies that marketing research is consis-
tent with the marketing concept because it “links the consumer . . . to the marketer.” The AMA
definition is normative. That is, it tells us how marketing research should be used to ensure the
firm is consumer oriented. We certainly agree with this, but what should be done isn’t always
followed. Our examples of poor product decisions we discussed previously illustrate this point,
and managers have been implored to use marketing research instead of their own intuition to
make decisions. Even though the AMA definition makes the point that marketing research links
the firm to the consumer, we want to point out that marketing research information is also
collected on entities other than the consumer. Information is routinely gathered on members of
distribution channels, employees, and competitors as well as the economic, social, technological,
and other environments.13
One could argue that the point of all this research is to do a better job of satisfying consumers.
To illustrate how marketing research helps link managers to consumers, imagine what is taking
place in the golf industry during the economic slowdown we have experienced since 2008.
Managers of firms that market golf clubs and equipment, clothing, and managers in related
industries, such as the lodging and resort industry, want to know how the recession is affecting
golfers’ attitudes and buying practices. Marketing Research Application 1.2 shows how one mar-
keting research firm is linking these managers to their consumers.
Sometimes marketing research studies lead to the wrong decisions. We should point out here
that just because a manager uses marketing research doesn’t mean that the decisions based on the
research are infallible. In the examples of “failed” products we examined earlier, some marketing
research was conducted but may have been inaccurate. There are plenty of examples in which mar-
keting research showed a product would fail, yet it turned out to be a resounding success. Stella
Artois beer appealed primarily to people in urban areas. The company’s advertising agency devel-
oped an advertisement showing a peasant selling flowers in a rural setting, but the marketing
research results showed the ad to be a failure, citing below-average brand awareness and the fact
that the ad positioned the beer away from the group to which it primarily appealed. Management at
Stella Artois, however, believed that the ad was good and the marketing research was flawed. The
ad was so successful it is credited with helping to turn the company’s product from a niche beer to
one of the top-selling grocery-store beer brands in the United Kingdom.14 Another example occurred
when marketing research showed the pilot for the Seinfeld show, starring Jerry Seinfeld, was “bad.”
Later, however, a doubting executive resurrected the show, which became one of the most suc-
cessful shows in television history.15 Likewise, marketing research studies also predicted that
hair-styling mousse and answering machines would fail if brought to market.16
As we’ve mentioned, there are plenty of failures where marketing research predicted success.
Most of these failures are removed from the shelves with as little fanfare as possible. Another
classic example of this was Beecham’s cold-water wash product, Delicare. The new product
failed even though marketing research predicted it would unseat the category leader, Woolite.
Beecham sued the research company that had predicted success.17 When Duncan Hines intro-
duced its line of soft cookies, marketing research studies showed that 80% of customers who tried
Soft Batch® cookies stated that they would buy them in the future, but didn’t.18 Sainsbury’s, the
U.K. grocery chain, had an ad prepared by their agency that tested favorably in marketing
research testing. However, the company received negative reactions from customers and staff
alike when the ad ran. Sainsbury’s switched ad agencies.19
These examples do not imply that marketing research is not useful. Remember, most mar-
keting research studies are trying to understand and predict consumer behavior—a difficult
task, indeed. The fact that the marketing research industry has been around for many years
means that it has passed the toughest of all tests to prove its worth—the test of the marketplace.
If the industry did not provide value, it would cease to exist. For each one of these examples
of “failure” there are tens of thousands of success stories supporting the use of marketing
research.
10 CHAPTER 1 • AN INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING RESEARCH
I see increasing reason to believe that the view formed some time
back as to the origin of the Makonde bush is the correct one. I have
no doubt that it is not a natural product, but the result of human
occupation. Those parts of the high country where man—as a very
slight amount of practice enables the eye to perceive at once—has not
yet penetrated with axe and hoe, are still occupied by a splendid
timber forest quite able to sustain a comparison with our mixed
forests in Germany. But wherever man has once built his hut or tilled
his field, this horrible bush springs up. Every phase of this process
may be seen in the course of a couple of hours’ walk along the main
road. From the bush to right or left, one hears the sound of the axe—
not from one spot only, but from several directions at once. A few
steps further on, we can see what is taking place. The brush has been
cut down and piled up in heaps to the height of a yard or more,
between which the trunks of the large trees stand up like the last
pillars of a magnificent ruined building. These, too, present a
melancholy spectacle: the destructive Makonde have ringed them—
cut a broad strip of bark all round to ensure their dying off—and also
piled up pyramids of brush round them. Father and son, mother and
son-in-law, are chopping away perseveringly in the background—too
busy, almost, to look round at the white stranger, who usually excites
so much interest. If you pass by the same place a week later, the piles
of brushwood have disappeared and a thick layer of ashes has taken
the place of the green forest. The large trees stretch their
smouldering trunks and branches in dumb accusation to heaven—if
they have not already fallen and been more or less reduced to ashes,
perhaps only showing as a white stripe on the dark ground.
This work of destruction is carried out by the Makonde alike on the
virgin forest and on the bush which has sprung up on sites already
cultivated and deserted. In the second case they are saved the trouble
of burning the large trees, these being entirely absent in the
secondary bush.
After burning this piece of forest ground and loosening it with the
hoe, the native sows his corn and plants his vegetables. All over the
country, he goes in for bed-culture, which requires, and, in fact,
receives, the most careful attention. Weeds are nowhere tolerated in
the south of German East Africa. The crops may fail on the plains,
where droughts are frequent, but never on the plateau with its
abundant rains and heavy dews. Its fortunate inhabitants even have
the satisfaction of seeing the proud Wayao and Wamakua working
for them as labourers, driven by hunger to serve where they were
accustomed to rule.
But the light, sandy soil is soon exhausted, and would yield no
harvest the second year if cultivated twice running. This fact has
been familiar to the native for ages; consequently he provides in
time, and, while his crop is growing, prepares the next plot with axe
and firebrand. Next year he plants this with his various crops and
lets the first piece lie fallow. For a short time it remains waste and
desolate; then nature steps in to repair the destruction wrought by
man; a thousand new growths spring out of the exhausted soil, and
even the old stumps put forth fresh shoots. Next year the new growth
is up to one’s knees, and in a few years more it is that terrible,
impenetrable bush, which maintains its position till the black
occupier of the land has made the round of all the available sites and
come back to his starting point.
The Makonde are, body and soul, so to speak, one with this bush.
According to my Yao informants, indeed, their name means nothing
else but “bush people.” Their own tradition says that they have been
settled up here for a very long time, but to my surprise they laid great
stress on an original immigration. Their old homes were in the
south-east, near Mikindani and the mouth of the Rovuma, whence
their peaceful forefathers were driven by the continual raids of the
Sakalavas from Madagascar and the warlike Shirazis[47] of the coast,
to take refuge on the almost inaccessible plateau. I have studied
African ethnology for twenty years, but the fact that changes of
population in this apparently quiet and peaceable corner of the earth
could have been occasioned by outside enterprises taking place on
the high seas, was completely new to me. It is, no doubt, however,
correct.
The charming tribal legend of the Makonde—besides informing us
of other interesting matters—explains why they have to live in the
thickest of the bush and a long way from the edge of the plateau,
instead of making their permanent homes beside the purling brooks
and springs of the low country.
“The place where the tribe originated is Mahuta, on the southern
side of the plateau towards the Rovuma, where of old time there was
nothing but thick bush. Out of this bush came a man who never
washed himself or shaved his head, and who ate and drank but little.
He went out and made a human figure from the wood of a tree
growing in the open country, which he took home to his abode in the
bush and there set it upright. In the night this image came to life and
was a woman. The man and woman went down together to the
Rovuma to wash themselves. Here the woman gave birth to a still-
born child. They left that place and passed over the high land into the
valley of the Mbemkuru, where the woman had another child, which
was also born dead. Then they returned to the high bush country of
Mahuta, where the third child was born, which lived and grew up. In
course of time, the couple had many more children, and called
themselves Wamatanda. These were the ancestral stock of the
Makonde, also called Wamakonde,[48] i.e., aborigines. Their
forefather, the man from the bush, gave his children the command to
bury their dead upright, in memory of the mother of their race who
was cut out of wood and awoke to life when standing upright. He also
warned them against settling in the valleys and near large streams,
for sickness and death dwelt there. They were to make it a rule to
have their huts at least an hour’s walk from the nearest watering-
place; then their children would thrive and escape illness.”
The explanation of the name Makonde given by my informants is
somewhat different from that contained in the above legend, which I
extract from a little book (small, but packed with information), by
Pater Adams, entitled Lindi und sein Hinterland. Otherwise, my
results agree exactly with the statements of the legend. Washing?
Hapana—there is no such thing. Why should they do so? As it is, the
supply of water scarcely suffices for cooking and drinking; other
people do not wash, so why should the Makonde distinguish himself
by such needless eccentricity? As for shaving the head, the short,
woolly crop scarcely needs it,[49] so the second ancestral precept is
likewise easy enough to follow. Beyond this, however, there is
nothing ridiculous in the ancestor’s advice. I have obtained from
various local artists a fairly large number of figures carved in wood,
ranging from fifteen to twenty-three inches in height, and
representing women belonging to the great group of the Mavia,
Makonde, and Matambwe tribes. The carving is remarkably well
done and renders the female type with great accuracy, especially the
keloid ornamentation, to be described later on. As to the object and
meaning of their works the sculptors either could or (more probably)
would tell me nothing, and I was forced to content myself with the
scanty information vouchsafed by one man, who said that the figures
were merely intended to represent the nembo—the artificial
deformations of pelele, ear-discs, and keloids. The legend recorded
by Pater Adams places these figures in a new light. They must surely
be more than mere dolls; and we may even venture to assume that
they are—though the majority of present-day Makonde are probably
unaware of the fact—representations of the tribal ancestress.
The references in the legend to the descent from Mahuta to the
Rovuma, and to a journey across the highlands into the Mbekuru
valley, undoubtedly indicate the previous history of the tribe, the
travels of the ancestral pair typifying the migrations of their
descendants. The descent to the neighbouring Rovuma valley, with
its extraordinary fertility and great abundance of game, is intelligible
at a glance—but the crossing of the Lukuledi depression, the ascent
to the Rondo Plateau and the descent to the Mbemkuru, also lie
within the bounds of probability, for all these districts have exactly
the same character as the extreme south. Now, however, comes a
point of especial interest for our bacteriological age. The primitive
Makonde did not enjoy their lives in the marshy river-valleys.
Disease raged among them, and many died. It was only after they
had returned to their original home near Mahuta, that the health
conditions of these people improved. We are very apt to think of the
African as a stupid person whose ignorance of nature is only equalled
by his fear of it, and who looks on all mishaps as caused by evil
spirits and malignant natural powers. It is much more correct to
assume in this case that the people very early learnt to distinguish
districts infested with malaria from those where it is absent.
This knowledge is crystallized in the
ancestral warning against settling in the
valleys and near the great waters, the
dwelling-places of disease and death. At the
same time, for security against the hostile
Mavia south of the Rovuma, it was enacted
that every settlement must be not less than a
certain distance from the southern edge of the
plateau. Such in fact is their mode of life at the
present day. It is not such a bad one, and
certainly they are both safer and more
comfortable than the Makua, the recent
intruders from the south, who have made USUAL METHOD OF
good their footing on the western edge of the CLOSING HUT-DOOR
plateau, extending over a fairly wide belt of
country. Neither Makua nor Makonde show in their dwellings
anything of the size and comeliness of the Yao houses in the plain,
especially at Masasi, Chingulungulu and Zuza’s. Jumbe Chauro, a
Makonde hamlet not far from Newala, on the road to Mahuta, is the
most important settlement of the tribe I have yet seen, and has fairly
spacious huts. But how slovenly is their construction compared with
the palatial residences of the elephant-hunters living in the plain.
The roofs are still more untidy than in the general run of huts during
the dry season, the walls show here and there the scanty beginnings
or the lamentable remains of the mud plastering, and the interior is a
veritable dog-kennel; dirt, dust and disorder everywhere. A few huts
only show any attempt at division into rooms, and this consists
merely of very roughly-made bamboo partitions. In one point alone
have I noticed any indication of progress—in the method of fastening
the door. Houses all over the south are secured in a simple but
ingenious manner. The door consists of a set of stout pieces of wood
or bamboo, tied with bark-string to two cross-pieces, and moving in
two grooves round one of the door-posts, so as to open inwards. If
the owner wishes to leave home, he takes two logs as thick as a man’s
upper arm and about a yard long. One of these is placed obliquely
against the middle of the door from the inside, so as to form an angle
of from 60° to 75° with the ground. He then places the second piece
horizontally across the first, pressing it downward with all his might.
It is kept in place by two strong posts planted in the ground a few
inches inside the door. This fastening is absolutely safe, but of course
cannot be applied to both doors at once, otherwise how could the
owner leave or enter his house? I have not yet succeeded in finding
out how the back door is fastened.