CHAPTER 1:

LEARNING OBJECTIVES

•Describe the impact marketing research has on marketing planning process

•Demonstrate how marketing research fits into the marketing planning process

•Provide examples of marketing research studies

•Understand the scope and focus of the marketing research industry

•Recognize the ethical issues associated with marketing research.

•Discuss new skills and emerging trends in marketing research

THE GROWING COMPLEXITY OF MARKETING RESEACH

•Technology and growth of global business are increasing the complexity of marketing research.

•New data connection tools, including Twitter, clickstream tracking, and GPS, pose serious questions in
regard to consumer privacy

•Current variety of available tools and techniques makes choosing a method for a particular research
project ingreasingly challenging.

MARKETING RESEARCH

•Links an organization to its market through the gathering of information.

THE GROWING COMPLEXITY OF MARKETING RESEARCH

•Marketing Research is a systematic process

•Tasks include:

-Designing methods for collecting information

-Managing the information collection process

-Analyzing and interpreting results

-Communicating findings to decision makers

THE ROLE AND VALUE OF MARKETING RESEACH

•Marketing Research draws heavily on the social sciences both for methods and theory

•Marketing Research methods:

-Are diverse

-Span a wide variety of qualitative and quantitatives techniques

-Borrow from disciplines such as psychology, sociology, and anthropology.

THE ROLE AND VALUE OF MARKETING RESEARCH

•Marketing Research can be applied to a wide variety of problems involving the Four Ps:

-Price

-Place

-Promotion

-Product

MARKETING RESEACH AND MARKETING MIX VARIABLES

•PRODUCT- product decisions are varied and include:

-New product development and introduction

-Branding

-Positioning Products.

PERCEPTUAL MAPPING : Used to picture the relative position of products on two or more product
dimensions important to consumer purchase decisions.

•PLACE/DISTRIBUTION- decisions include choosing and evaluating:

√ locations

√ channel

√ distribution partners
•RETAILING RESEARCH: Focus on trade area analysis, store image/perception, in-store traffic patterns,
and location analysis.

•BEHAVIORAL TARGETING: Displays ads at one website based on the user's previous surfing behavior.

•PROMOTION- important influences on any company's sales.

-Essential that companies know how to obtain good returns from their promotional budgets.

SHOPPER MARKETING: Marketing to consumers based on research of the entire process consumers go
through when making a purchase.

•MOST COMMON RESEARCH TASKS IN INTEGRATED MARKETING COMMUNICATIONS:

-Advertising Effectiveness Studies

-Attitudinal Research

-Sales tracking

•PRICE- pricing desicions involve:

-Pricing new products

- Establishing price levels in test marketing

-Modifying prices for existing products.

•MARKETING RESEARCH PROVIDES ANSWER:

-How large is the demand potential within the target market at various price levels?

-How sensitive is demand to in changes price levels?

-Are there identifiable segments that have different price sensitivities?

-Are there opportunities to offer different price lines for different target markets?

CONSUMERS AND MARKETS SEGMENTATION STUDIES

•MAJOR FOCUSES OF A MARKETING RESEARCH PROJECT:

-Creating customer profiles

-Understanding behavioral characteristics

•BENEFIT AND LIFESTYLE STUDIES: Examine similarities and differences in consumer's needs

-Researchers used these studies to identify two or more segments within the market for a particular
company's products

•MARKETERS USE ETNOGRAPHIC RESEARCH

-To study consumer behavior as activities embedded in a cultural context and laden with identify

-Requires extended observation of consumers and context

MARKETING THEORY

•IMPORTANT TO MANY BUSINESS

-Can be useful and thinking business problems and opportunities

TYPES OF MARKETING RESEARCH FIRMS

•Internal or External

•Custom or Standardized

•Brokers or Facilitators

•INTERNAL

-Organizational units that reside within a company.

-Benefits:

•Research methods consistency

•Shared information across the company

•Lower research costs

•Ability to produce actionable research results.

EXTERNAL

-Perform all aspects of the research.

-Benefits:

•Objective suppliers

•Less subject to company politics and regulations.

•Specialized talent for the same cost

•Greater flexibility in sheduling studies and specific project requirements.

CUSTOMIZED RESEARCH FIRMS- Provide tailored services for clients.

STANDARDIZED RESEACH FIRMS- Provide general results following a standard format so that can results
of a study conducter 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 databased.

CHANGING SKILLS FIR A CHANGING INDUSTRY

•As marketing research firms expand, requirements for successfully executing marketing research
projects will change.

•TOP FIVE SKILLS:

-Ability to understand and interpret secondary data

-Presentation Skills

-Foreign-Language Competency

-Negotiation Skills

-Computer Profiency
ETHICS IN MARKETING RESEARCH PRACTICES

•Major source of ethical issues are the interactions among the three key groups:

-Research Information Providers

-Research Information Users

-Respondents

EXHIBIT 1.1- ETHICAL CHALLENGES IN MARKETING RESEARCH

-Research Provider

-Client/Research Buyer

-Unethical Activity by Respondent

ETHICAL QUESTIONS IN GENERAL BUSINESS PRACTICES

•Potential Ethical pitfalls for research providers:

-Unethical Pricing

-Unnecessary or Unwarranted research services

-Client Confidentiality issues

-Use of "black-box" methodologies

•Branded "black-box" methodologies: Offered by research firms that are branded

-Do not provide information about how the methodology works.

CONDUCTING RESEARCH NOT MEETING PROFESSIONAL STANDARDS

•Reasons

-Fearful of losing the business entirely

-Client pressure to perform research to prove a predetermined conclusion

-Cost cutting
-Interviewers working for research firms may also engage in unethical behavior.

•CURBSTONING: Data collection personnel filling out surveys for fake respondents.

ABUSE OF RESPONDENTS

•Potential ways to abuse respondents in marketing research:

-By not providing promised incentives to respondent for completing interviews or questionnaires

-By stating that interviews are very short when in reality they may last an hour or more

-Buying using "fake" sponsors.

•At the end of any study involving deception, subjects must be "debriefed" to explain deception.

-Subject debriefing: Fully explaining to respondents that was used during research.

•SUGGING/FRUGGING:

Claiming that a survey is for research purposes and then asking for a sale or donation.

•DE-ANONYMIZING DATA: Combining different publicly available information, usually unethically, to

determine consumer's identities, especially on the internet.

UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES OF THE CLIENT/ RESEARCH USER

• Requesting detailed research proposal from a several competing research providers with no intention
of actually selecting a firm to conduct the research.

•Promising a prospective research provider a long-term relationship or additional projects in order to

abtain a very low price on the initial research project.

•Overstating results of a marketing research project

UNETHICAL ACTIVITIES BY THE RESPONDENTS

•PROVIDING DISHONEST ANSWERS

-Faking behavior

MARKETING RESEARCH CODES OF ETHICS

•Marketing Research Society summarizes the central principles in ESOMAR's code as fallows:

-Confirm to all national and international laws

-Behave ethically

-Be particularly careful other vulnerable groups

-Ensure respondents are cooperating voluntarily and are well informed a risks.

-Respect rights or respondents

-Protect personal data and use only for intended purpose

-Conduct projects witj accuracy, transparency, objectivity and quality

-Conform to priniciples of fair competition