Essential of

Marketing Research
Joseph F. Hair, Jr. Mary Celsi David J. Ortinau Robert P. Bush
 • Marketing research is the systematic
design, collection, analysis, and
reporting of data relevant to a specific
marketing situation facing an
organization
• Gives marketers insights into customer
1. What is motivations, purchase behavior, and
satisfaction. Help assess market
Marketing potential and market share or measure
the effectiveness of pricing, product,
Research? distribution, and promotion activities.
• Approaches followed by firms:
 Use own research departments
Hire outside research specialists
Purchase data collected by outside
firms
1. What is Marketing Research?
Steps in the Marketing Research Process

Defining the Developing Implementing the

Interpreting and
problems and research plan for research plan:
reporting the
research collecting collecting and
findings
objectives information analyzing the data
Chap 1: Marketing Research for
Managerial Decision Making
 Learning Objectives

1. The Growing Complexity of Marketing Research

2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
3. The Marketing Research Industry
4. Ethics in Marketing Research Practices
5. Emerging Trends
1. The Growing Complexity of Marketing Research
• Marketing research The function that links an organization to its market through
the gathering of information.
• Marketing research facilitates
- the identification and definition of market-driven opportunities and problems
- the development and evaluation of marketing actions
- enables the monitoring of marketing performance and improved understanding of
marketing as a business process.
• Technology and the growth of global business are increasing the complexity of
marketing research.
- Digital technologies
- Globalization
1. The Growing Complexity of Marketing Research
• Technology and the growth of global business are increasing the complexity of
marketing research.
- Digital technologies
- Globalization
• The explosion of new marketing research tools and concepts, established tools:
- Traditional data collection methods
- Hybrid research techniques involving multiple research methods
1. The Growing Complexity of Marketing Research
• Marketing research draws heavily on the social sciences both for methods and
theory
• Marketing research can be thought of as a toolbox full of implements
• Tools include: surveys, focus groups, experiments, and ethnography
• The size of the toolbox has grown in recent years with the advent of “big data,”
social media, Internet surveys, and mobile phones.
• Marketing research can be applied to a wide variety of problems involving the four
Ps: price, place, promotion, and product.
2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
Marketing Research and Marketing Mix Variables
1st P: Product
• Concept and product testing or test marketing provide information for
decisions on product improvements and new-product introductions
• Branding is an important strategic issue both for new and existing
products.
• Perceptual mapping A technique used to picture the relative position
of products on two or more product dimensions important to
consumer purchase decisions.
2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
Marketing Research and Marketing Mix Variables
2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
Marketing Research and Marketing Mix Variables
2nd P: Place/ Distribution
• Retailing research Research investigations that focus on topics such as
trade area analysis, store image/perception, in-store traffic patterns,
and location analysis.
• Behavioral targeting Displaying ads at one website based on the
user’s previous surfing behavior.
• Shopper marketing Marketing to consumers based on research of the
entire process consumers go through when making a purchase.
2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
Marketing Research and Marketing Mix Variables
3rd
P: Promotion
• Analytics” is the application of statistics to quantify performance
• Marketing research that examines the performance of a promotional
program must consider the total program as each effort often affects
others in the promotional mix.
2. The Role and Value of Marketing Research
Marketing Research and Marketing Mix Variables
4th P: Price
• How large is the demand potential within the target market at various
price levels? What are the sales forecasts at various price levels?
• How sensitive is demand to changes in price levels?
• Are there identifiable segments that have different price sensitivities?
• Are there opportunities to offer different price lines for different
target markets?
3. The Marketing Research Industry
Types of Marketing Research Firms
• Customized research firms Research firms that provide tailored
services for clients.
• Standardized research firms Research firms that provide general
results following a standard format so that results of a study
conducted for one client can be compared to norms.
• Syndicated business services Services provided by standardized
research firms that include data made or developed from
a common data pool or database.
3. The Marketing Research Industry
Changing Skills for a Changing Industry

• Marketing research employees represent a vast diversity of cultures,

abilities, and personalities.
• The top five skills executives hope to find in candidates for marketing
research positions:
(1) the ability to understand and interpret secondary data,
(2) presentation skills,
(3) foreign-language competency,
(4) negotiation skills
(5) information technology proficiency.
 • The major sources of ethical issues in marketing
4. Ethics in research are the interactions among the three key
Marketing groups:
Research Practices (1) the research information providers
(2) the research information users
(3) the respondents.
4. Ethics in
Marketing
Research
Practices
5. Emerging Trends
• Five major trends are becoming evident:
(1) increased emphasis on secondary data collection methods
(2) movement toward technology-related data management (optical
scanning data, database technology, customer relationship management)
(3) expanded use of digital technology for information acquisition and
retrieval
(4) a broader international client base
(5) movement beyond data analysis toward a data
interpretation/information management environment.