POST GRADUATE PROGRAMME IN MANAGEMENT

COURSE OUTLINE
AY 2023-24 TERM: I/II/III

TITLE OF THE COURSE: MARKETING RESEARCH

COURSE TYPE: CORE ELECTIVE

CREDIT(S): 4 NO. OF SECTION(s): 6

Name of the Faculty Faculty Room Email Telephone
No. Number
Prof. Abhishek Mishra J-203 abhishek@iimidr.ac.in 2439599
Prof. Saripalli Bhavani B-204 bhavanishankar@iimidr.ac.in 2439548
Shankar
Prof. Sudipta Mandal J-222 sudiptam@iimidr.ac.in 2439449

CONSULTATION TIME FOR STUDENTS

Name of the Faculty Timing
Prof. Abhishek Mishra Weekdays with prior appointment with respective
Prof. Saripalli Bhavani Shankar faculty members. For special issues, faculty can be
contacted over email and be met at other times.
Prof. Sudipta Mandal

COURSE DESCRIPTION
Marketing research is an applied management discipline that is critical to understanding
markets and customers in order to make better marketing decisions. The key objective of this
course is to provide a learning environment for acquiring the essential working knowledge of
when and how to conduct marketing research and the most effective way to communicate
marketing information to support marketing decisions.

COURSE OBJECTIVES
Upon completion of this course, the participants should be able to:

1. Understand the needs of marketing managers for marketing and market information;
2. Determine the objectives of the marketing research project;
3. Identify the type of research that will best help achieve the objectives;
4. Learn how to write a good marketing research proposal;
5. Discover how to develop suitable questionnaires;
6. Understand how to manage and execute survey fieldwork;
7. Determine how to best analyze survey data;
8. Learn how to turn statistical findings into marketing information that gets attention;
9. Learn how to write reports that convey marketing information simply and effectively
and encourage marketing action

LEARNING OUTCOMES
This course attempts a hands‐on opportunity for the students to learn about a critical
marketing management activity. The participants will have the chance to conceive a research
project for a real client, design the study, execute it, and report on the findings in a
professional manner.

PEDAGOGY/TEACHING METHOD
The main learning platform in this course will be the term project. Classes will consist of
lectures and discussion of group projects. Lectures will elaborate and reinforce the assigned
textbook material as well as additional material which will be distributed in the class. For this
reason, the information will be covered quickly, allowing more time for examples and
discussion. Therefore, it is important that students complete the assigned readings before
class.

EVALUATION
Individual Component Group Component Weightage
Class participation 20
Group Assignments 40
Final Examination 40
Total 100%

COURSE PRE-REQUISITE/ REMARKS FOR PARTICIPANTS (if any) NA

ACADEMIC DISHONESTY
IIM Indore believes in Academic honesty. Academic dishonesty or misconduct is cheating that
relates to an academic activity. It is a violation of trust between the Institute and its
stakeholders. Plagiarism, fabrication, deception, cheating and sabotage are examples of
unacceptable academic conduct. Please consult the Programme manual for the section on
academic dishonesty.

SCHEDULE OF SESSIONS

Module I: INTRODUCTION TO MARKETING RESEARCH

Module Objective: What is marketing research and how does it work?
Session 1 The Marketing Research Environment
Objective Introduction to marketing research and its role in decision making
process
Reading Chapter 1, Text Book. Introduction, Evolution and Emerging Issues (3‐18)
Note on market and consumer research (1987), Ward and Reibstein,
HBS.579136
Market Research: A background note (1991); Robert Dolan, HBS.592034
Case Nielsen: Market Research for Pantene (IMB419)

Sessions 2, 3 Problem formulation and Research Design

Objective Discuss the types of research designs and suitable deployment for
different marketing problems.
Reading Chapter 2-3: Text Book. Marketing Research Process & Research Methods
and Design (19-47)
Market Research: Listen and Learn (Ch. 3), Marketer’s toolkit: The 10
strategies you need to succeed (2006)
Case Life in the fast lane (TB: Naresh Malhotra)

Session 4, 5 Qualitative Research*

(*For sections of Prof Abhishek Mishra/Prof Sudipta Mandal, these are
guest lectures by VF Prof. Tanvi Gupta)
Objective Discuss the basic tenets of qualitative research and various methodologies
under it.
Reading An introduction to qualitative research (2007); Hancock, Ockleford and
Windridge, NHS.
Case Nike: Associating Athletes, Performance and the Brand (TB: Malhotra and
Dash)

Session 6, 7 Measurement scales and Questionnaire Design

 Objective To understand scales and questionnaire framing techniques
Reading Chapter 4: Text Book, Questionnaire Design (48-83)
Questionnaire Design and Development (1990), A.J. Silk, HBS 5900015
Case Casual clothing preference of youth (TB: R. Nargundkar)

Module II: DATA COLLECTION AND ANALYSIS

Module Objective: To expose the participants how to plan data collection, preparation and
analysis.
Session 8 Sampling Procedures
Objective Discuss the various sampling procedures and their application to
marketing research
Reading Chapter 5: Sampling Methods (94-112) (TB: R. Nargundkar).
Sampling and Statistical Interference (1996), Schiefler, HBS 191092
Case American Wine Inc. (TB: Luck and Rubin)

Session 9 Fieldwork and data collection

Objective To understand the process of effective data collection and fieldwork.
Reading Chapter 6: Field Procedures (113-118) (TB: R. Nargundkar).
Smith, S.M. & Albaum, G.S. (2010). An Introduction to Market Research.
Chapter 5 (pp. 59 – 78).
Case NA

Session 10, 11 Data preparation and basic statistics

Objective To discuss data preparation techniques and generating descriptive
statistics along with basic analyses like z/t and chi‐square tests.
Reading Chapter 7‐8: Text Book, Planning Data Analysis and Simple Tabulation
and Cross‐tabulation (119‐206) (TB: R. Nargundkar).
SPSS Manual, Data Preparation (97‐123)
Case NA

Session 12, 13 Project Discussion in Groups: Class Exercise

Objective In this session each group will get a chance to discuss their project
proposals. The discussion process will involve a peer‐review process
where other groups will get a chance to critique each other’s work.
Typical expectations for this discussion needs the groups to be ready
with their research problem, research design and timelines for the
project completion.
Reading NA
Case NA

Module III: APPLICATIONS FOR SOLVING MARKETING PROBLEMS

Module Objective: Expose the students to advanced methodologies concerning Segmenting,
Targeting and Positioning. Each of the next session involves performing the analysis on SPSS
and how to interpret the data for effective marketing research exercise. For each exercise,
students will need to follow the instructor on their laptops with a common dataset for
effective learning.
Session 14 Multiple Regression
Objective To make the participants understand the process of exploring
relationships between variables using multiple regression through
demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 10: Correlation and Regression (244‐284) (TB: R. Nargundkar).
Multiple Regression and Marketing Mix Models (2014), Venkatesan and
Gibbs, Darden Business Publishing UV6764
SPSS Manual, Bivariate Correlation (332‐334) and Linear Regression (343‐
352)
Case NA
 Session 15 Factor Analysis
Objective To make the participants learn how to reduce number of variables to
explore the underlying dimensions using Factor Analysis through
demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 13: Factor Analysis for Data Reduction (336‐364) (TB: R.
Nargundkar).
SPSS Manual, Factor Analysis (395‐401)
Case NA

Session 16 Cluster Analysis

Objective To make the participants learn to perform segmentation using cluster
analysis through demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 14: Cluster Analysis for Market Segmentation (365‐404) (TB: R.
Nargundkar).
Cluster Analysis for segmentation (2014), Venkatesan, Darden Business
Publishing.
SPSS Manual, Hierarchical Cluster Analysis (412‐416) and K‐Mean Cluster
Analysis (417‐419)
Case NA

Session 17 Multidimensional Scaling

Objective To make the participants learn perceptual mapping using MDS through
demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 15: Multidimensional Scaling for Brand Positioning (405‐426) (TB:
R. Nargundkar).
Methods for producing perceptual maps from data (2010), Wilcox,
Darden Business Publishing UV0405
SPSS Manual, Multidimensional Scaling (465‐470)
Case NA

Session 18 Discriminant Analysis

Objective To make the participants learn to perform discriminant analysis through
demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 11: Discriminant Analysis for Classification and Prediction (285‐
317) (TB: R. Nargundkar).
SPSS Manual, Discriminant Analysis (387‐393)
Case NA

Session 19 Conjoint Analysis

Objective To make the participants learn to perform conjoint analysis through
demonstration in SPSS.
Reading Chapter 16: Conjoint Analysis for Product Design (427‐457) (TB: R.
Nargundkar).
Case NA

Session 20 Design and Analysis of Experiments

Objective To make the participants learn how to design experiments
Reading Chapter 7: Causal Research Design (TB: Naresh Malhotra) (216‐247)
Case NA

Text Book for the course: Please give the details of the book if students need to buy the
book
Author Title Publisher Edition Remarks, if any
Nargundkar, Marketing Tata McGraw-Hill Fourth
R. (2019) Research-Text & Education
Cases
Reference Text Book: The following books are recommended for supplementary reading:
1. Malhotra, N.K. & Dash S. (2011). Marketing Research: An applied orientation. New Delhi:
Pearson Education.
2. Nargundkar, R (2019). Marketing Research: Text and Cases, 4th Edition. New Delhi: McGraw
Hill.
3. Green, P., Tull, D.S. &Albaum, G. (2013). Research for Marketing Decisions. New Delhi:
Prentice Hall India
4. Luck, D. J., & Rubin, R. S. (1997). Marketing Research. Prentice Hall: New York.
5. Pallant, J. (2001). SPSS Survival Manual: A Step by Step Guide to Data Analysis Using SPSS
for Windows (Versions 10 and 11): SPSS Student Version 11.0 for Windows. Milton Keynes,
UK, USA: Open University Press.

Additional Readings:

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