Marketing Management

Introduction
Marketing management is the organizational discipline that focuses on the practical application
of marketing orientation, techniques, and methods inside enterprises and organizations and the

management of a firm's marketing resources and activities. Marketing management has gained
importance to meet increasing competition and the need for improved methods of distribution to
reduce cost and to increase profits. Marketing management today is the most important function
in a commercial and business enterprise. This report has made based on the topics of chapter four
‘’ Conducting Marketing Research’’ which is consist of the questions, case analysis, and the
brief of the whole chapter.
Brief of Chapter 4: Conducting Marketing Research
Companies can conduct their own marketing research or hire other companies to do it for them.
Some of ways companies can creatively and affordably conduct research include: engage
students or professors to design and carry out projects; use the Internet; check out rivals; tap into
marketing partner expertise; and tap into employee creativity and wisdom.

Scope of Marketing Research

Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, and public to the marketer through
information—information used to identify and define marketing opportunities and problems;
generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor marketing performance; and improve
understanding of marketing as a process. For example, to examine the availability of the cheap
internet packages, Banglalink conduct marketing research through the external marketing
research companies and reach into a decision for reaching towards their targeted customer
through effective decision making that can be called as a scope to connect customers and
companies.

Importance of Marketing Insights

Marketing research is all about generating insights. Marketing insights provide diagnostic
information about how and why we observe certain effects in the marketplace and what that
means to marketers. Good marketing insights often form the basis of successful marketing
programs.

When an extensive consumer research study of U.S. retail shoppers by Walmart revealed that the
store’s key competitive advantages were the functional benefit of “offers low prices” and the
emotional benefit of “makes me feel like a smart shopper,” its marketers used those insights to
develop their “Save Money, Live Better” campaign.

To improve the marketing of its $3 billion Pantene hair care brand, Procter & Gamble conducted
a deep dive into women’s feelings about hair, using surveys with mood scales from psychology,
high-resolution EEG research to measure brainwaves, and other methods. As a result, the
company reformulated Pantene products, redesigned packages, pared the line down from 14
“collections” to eight, and fine-tuned the ad campaign.
Who Does Marketing Research?

Marketing research, however, is not limited to large companies with big budgets and marketing
research departments. Often at much smaller companies, everyone carries out marketing research
—including the customers. Small companies can also hire the services of a marketing research
firm or conduct research in creative and affordable ways, such as:

1. Engaging students or professors to design and carry out projects: The students gain
experience and visibility; the companies get fresh sets of eyes to solve problems at a fraction of
what consultants would charge. AT&T, GE, Samsung, Shell Oil, and others have engaged in a
“crowd casting” exercise by sponsoring the Innovation Challenge.

2. Using the Internet: A company can collect considerable information at little cost by
examining competitors’ Web sites, monitoring chat rooms and blogs, and accessing published
data. Social media monitoring tools from companies like Radian6, Attensity, and Lithium keep
firms on top of online buzz.

3. Checking out rivals: Many small businesses, such as restaurants, hotels, or specialty retailers,
routinely visit competitors to learn about changes they have made.

4. Tapping into marketing partner expertise: Marketing research firms, ad agencies,

distributors, and other marketing partners may be able to share relevant market knowledge they
have accumulated. Partners targeting small or medium-sized businesses may be especially
helpful. For example, to promote more shipping to China, UPS conducted several in-depth
surveys of the Chinese market to portray its complexities.

5. Tapping into employee creativity and wisdom: No one may come into more contact with
customers and understand a company’s products, services, and brands better than its employees.
Software maker Intuit puts employees into four- to six-person “two pizza” teams—called that
because it takes only two pizzas to feed them. They observe customers in all walks of life and try
to identify problems Intuit might be able to solve.

Most companies use a combination of resources to study their industries, competitors, audiences,
and channel strategies. hey normally budget marketing research at 1 percent to 2 percent of
company sales and spend a large percentage of that on the services of outside firms. Marketing
research firms fall into three categories:

1. Syndicated-service research firms—These firms gather consumer and trade information,

which they sell for a fee. Examples include the Nielsen Company, Kantar Group, Westat, and
IRI.

2. Custom marketing research firms—These firms are hired to carry out specific projects.
They design the study and report the findings.

3. Specialty-line marketing research firms—These firms provide specialized research

services. The best example is the field-service firm, which sells field interviewing services to
other firms.

The Marketing Research Process

To take advantage of all the resources and practices available, good marketers adopt a formal
marketing research process that follows the six steps. For example, an airlines want to install
high speed Wi-Fi services in their vehicles and the question is to decide the profitability and
customer adeptness with the Wi-Fi service. Their whole marketing research process for
answering the question will be:
Step 1: Define the Problem, the Decision Alternatives, and the Research
Objectives

Marketing managers must be careful not to define the problem too broadly or too narrowly for
the marketing researcher. So, the research objectives in case of Wi-Fi service will to installment
of efficient Wi-Fi service for fulfilling the overall profitability of the company and the research
problem will be “Will offering ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi service create enough incremental
preference and profit to justify its cost against other service enhancements?

Step 2: Develop the Research Plan

In the second stage of marketing research we develop the most efficient plan for gathering the
needed information and discover what that will cost. Suppose Airline made a prior estimate that
launching ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi service would yield a long-term profit of $50,000. If the
manager believes the marketing research will lead to term profit of $90,000, he should be willing
to spend up to $40,000 on this research. If the research will cost more than $40,000, it’s not
worth doing. To design a research plan, we need to make decisions about the data sources,
research approaches, research instruments, sampling plan, and contact methods.

a. Data Sources

The researcher can gather secondary data, primary data, or both. Secondary data are data that
were collected for another purpose and already exist somewhere. Primary data are data freshly
gathered for a specific purpose or project. Researchers usually start their investigation by
examining some of the rich variety of low-cost and readily available secondary data without
collecting costly primary data.

b. Research Approaches

Marketers collect primary data in five main ways: through observation, focus groups, surveys,
behavioral data, and experiments. Observational Research Researchers can gather fresh data by
observing unobtrusively as customers’ shop or consume products. Ethnographic research uses
concepts and tools from anthropology and other social science disciplines to provide deep
cultural understanding of how people live and work. The goal is to immerse the researcher into
consumers’ lives to uncover unarticulated desires. A focus group is a gathering of 6 to 10 people
carefully selected for demographic, psychographic, or other considerations and convened to
discuss various topics at length for a small payment. A professional moderator asks questions
and probes based on the marketing managers’ agenda. Focus group research is a useful
exploratory step, but researchers must avoid generalizing to the whole mark. Survey Research
Companies undertake surveys to assess people’s knowledge, beliefs, preferences, and
satisfaction and to measure these magnitudes in the general population. A company such as the
Airlines might prepare its own survey instrument, or it might add questions to an omnibus survey
that carries the questions of several companies at a much lower cost. Customers leave traces of
their purchasing behavior in-store scanning data, catalog purchases, and customer databases.
Marketers can learn much by analyzing these data which can be regarded as behavioral research.

c. Research Instruments

Marketing researchers have a choice of three main research instruments in collecting primary
data: questionnaires, qualitative measures, and technological devices. Questionnaires A
questionnaire consists of a set of questions presented to respondents. Because of its flexibility, it
is by far the most common instrument used to collect primary data. The form, wording, and
sequence of the questions can all influence the responses, so testing and de-bugging are
necessary. Closed-end questions specify all the possible answers, and the responses are easier to
interpret and tabulate. Open-end questions allow respondents to answer in their own words.
Qualitative Measures used by marketers who prefer qualitative methods for gauging consumer
opinion because they feel consumers’ actions don’t always match their answers to survey
questions. Qualitative research techniques are relatively indirect and unstructured measurement
approaches, limited only by the marketing researcher’s creativity, that permit a range of
responses. It can be including projective techniques, visualization, word association, etc.

d. Sampling Plan

After choosing the research approach and instruments, the marketing researcher must design a
sampling plan. This calls for three decisions: 1. Sampling unit: Whom should we survey? In the
airline survey, should the sampling unit consist of only first-class business travelers, only first-
class vacation travelers, or both? With the sampling unit chosen, marketers must next develop a
sampling frame so everyone in the target population has an equal or known chance of being
sampled. 2.Sample size: How many people should we survey? Large samples give more reliable
results, but it’s not necessary to sample the entire target population to achieve reliable results.
3.  Sampling procedure: How should we choose the respondents? Probability sampling allows
marketers to calculate confidence limits for sampling error and makes the sample more
representative.

d. Contact Methods

Now the marketing researcher must decide how to contact the subjects: by mail, by telephone, in
person, or online. Mail Contacts The mail questionnaire is one way to reach people who would
not give personal interviews. Telephone interviewing is a good method for gathering
information quickly; the interviewer is also able to clarify questions if respondents do not
understand them. Personal interviewing is the most versatile method. The interviewer can ask
more questions and record additional observations about the respondent, such as dress and body
language. The Internet offers many ways to do research. A company can embed a questionnaire
on its Web site and offer an incentive for answering, or it can place a banner on a frequently
visited site, inviting people to answer questions and possibly win a prize.

Step 3: Collect the Information

The data collection phase of marketing research is generally the most expensive and error-prone.
Some respondents will be away from home, offline, or otherwise inaccessible; they must be
contacted again or replaced. Others will refuse to cooperate or will give biased or dishonest
answers. Internationally, one of the biggest obstacles to collecting information is the need to
achieve consistency. Sometimes the solution may be as simple as ensuring the right language is
used.

Step 4: Analyze the Information

The next-to-last step in the process is to extract findings by tabulating the data and developing
summary measures. The researchers now compute averages and measures of dispersion for the
major variables and apply some advanced statistical techniques and decision models in the hope
of discovering additional findings.

Step 5: Present the Findings

As the last step, the researcher presents the findings. Researchers are increasingly asked to play a
proactive, consulting role in translating data and information into insights and recommendations
for management

Step 6: Make the Decision

The Airlines managers who commissioned the research need to weigh the evidence. If their
confidence in the findings is low, they may decide against introducing ultra-high-speed Wi-Fi
service. If they are predisposed to launching it, the findings support their inclination. They may
even decide to study the issue further and do more research.

Measuring Marketing Productivity

Marketing research must assess the efficiency and effectiveness of marketing activities. Two
complementary approaches to measuring marketing productivity are: (1) marketing metrics to
assess marketing effects and (2) marketing-mix modeling to estimate causal relationships and
measure how marketing activity affects outcomes. Marketing dashboards are a structured way to
disseminate the insights gleaned from these two approaches.

Marketing Metrics

Marketers employ a wide variety of measures to assess marketing effects. Marketing metrics is
the set of measures that helps marketers quantify, compare, and interpret their performance.

For example, the marketing manager of Lifebuoy wants to measure the effectiveness of their
advertisement of overall IMC planning by measuring the customer response. This effectiveness
of advertisement can be measured by: 1) Website analytics, details on site navigation and online
interaction; 2) Social media presence, different demographic and geographic responses to social
media channels across different markets; and 3) Permission marketing statistics, measures of
interactions and engagement with consumers from auto e-mails.
Marketing-Mix Modeling

Marketing accountability also means that marketers must more precisely estimate the effects of
different marketing investments. Marketing-mix models analyze data from a variety of sources,
such as retailer scanner data, company shipment data, pricing, media, and promotion spending
data, to understand more precisely the effects of specific marketing activities. To deepen
understanding, marketers can conduct multivariate analyses, such as regression analysis, to sort
through how marketing element influences outcomes such as brand sales or market share

Marketing Dashboards

Formally, marketing dashboards are “a concise set of interconnected performance drivers to be

viewed in common throughout the organization. Management can assemble a summary set of
relevant internal and external measures in a marketing dashboard for synthesis and interpretation.
Marketing dashboards are like the instrument panel in a car or plane, visually displaying real-
time indicators to ensure proper functioning. As input to the marketing dashboard, companies
should include two key market-based scorecards that reflect performance.

Introductory Case Analysis

Case analysis of Samsung Galaxy S III

The case stated that when a brand launches a product their marketing campaign should be
accurate, timely and actionable because these three combined form an attractive marketing
campaign which can attract the target customer. Apart from that, the case strongly focused on
being up to date about the competitors and to plan according to that. For example, when
Samsung launched their S III series in the market they launched an ad showing the comparison
of what Samsung has which Apple doesn’t and also they just delivered a message that by having
genius in your shop, it’s not that easy to understand what the customer wants by giving the
tagline “It doesn’t take a genius” pointing towards apple’s genius retail agent.

Chapter End Case’s Questions

IDEO Case
Question 1: Why has IDEO been so successful?
Answer: The reasons behind IDEO’s success is that they focus consumer’s preferences and
expectations while designing their product. For that they continuously conduct their market
research to collects consumer’s insights. But more importantly they change their research
method and techniques regularly to gain the real information of consumer’s behaviors,
experiences and expectations. IDEO does market research using best scientific method by using
accurate model building and creativity

They use an approach called “Design Thinking”- an innovative method that incorporate behavior
into design where they form teams of individuals of various backgrounds and experiences with
diverse knowledge will come up with better ideas than one mind can reach alone.

IDEO makes prototypes before the final design that helps the individual to taste out the products
and give some feedbacks which ease the process of continuous development of the products until
it solves the ultimate customer’s problem. They include the client in the process so that they can
also get a sense of the actual consumer experiences. They also encourage the clients to give their
preferences and suggestions.

The strategy that makes IDEO successful from any other company is that they always put
consumers first. David Blakely, head of IDEO’s technology group explained,” Tech company
design from inside out whereas we work from the outside in so that we can put customer first”.
They always try to uncover deep insights of the consumer by various method, process and
strategy. Some of the methods they use are, Behavioral mapping, In-depth interview, Storytelling
techniques, engaging consumer by inspiring them to share their videos, narratives, skits about
their experiences about a product. These process helps IDEO to get the real information about
customer insights.

IDEO not only solves problem for the consumers they do it for also their clients. Its designs
solve a usability problem for the clients. IDEO design, redesign, improve their products until it
become the solution of ultimate customer’s problem. So, these are reasons behind the success of
IDEO.

Question 2: What is the most difficult challenge it (IDEO) faces in conducting its research
and designing its products?
Though IDEO is one of the most influential design consultancy firms, likes other firms it also
faces some challenges in conducting research & designing its products. The most difficult
challenge it faces is customer- centered approach which means performing business that focuses
more on delivering better customer experience. In-depth participation of customers is important
for research but it is difficult to collect data from customers.

In below, the reasons of why customer-centered approach is the most difficult challenge is
discussed-

Time consuming and expensive: The data which is collecting from consumers is a long time
process. To solve a problem IDEO uses its own data or data that already exist. Interview setting,
analyzing, feedback, reporting etc. take a lot of time to make a right decision and observe
customers experience. Also they are too expensive because it costs money and rises expenses.

Interview may be subjective and biased: Sometimes the information obtains may be
insufficient and different interviewers give different information which causes biased. IDEO
works with diverse group of people that makes the interview subjective few times. Interviews are
done based on a certain area and it may not be fixed in other area or situation.

Human shadowing can be ethically questioned: IDEO uses different methods like behavior
research and observation to understand how consumers feel about their products. For this they
exercise human shadowing to know about consumers’ experiences. This method is tested in
natural environment, in a natural way where customers even don’t aware they are being
observed. So, it can be ethically questioned in one way.

Balance with customer expectation: To match with customer’s expectation IDEO is always
trying to balance with their activities. Sometimes customers themselves don’t know what they
want and which products solve their problems. As IDEO puts customers first and meets a lot of
companies and agencies with their problems and different expectations, it makes difficult
challenges for IDEO to keep balance. And make customers happy with its innovation inventions.

Sampling can be small & skewed: If the sample size is small and give wrong direction, then it
may not reach in actual goal. Sampling can be wrong if the data is not properly collected and
enough size and as a result, the correct outcome can’t be measured. IDEO may face this kind of
obstacle and it can suddenly change firm reputation and position through those mistakes and
wrong directions. This is also hamper in conducting research and products designing.

IDEO’s human/customer centered approach is a big difficult challenge to handle. And this
challenge IDEO faces and maintains when they dealing and running their research and designing
product.

Question 3. In the end, IDEO creates great solutions for companies that then receive all the
credit. Should IDEO try to create more brand awareness for itself? Why or why not?

IDEO is a consultancy firm. It has been a success story because of its research method. We see
an interesting thing that come from the head of IDEO's technology group “we design from the
outside in so that we can put customer first". The attention of the human element in relation to
product life cycle is the primary source of success. IDEO use different methods of behavioral
research and observation to get into the mind of the consumer. This helps IDEO uncover deep
insight and understand how consumer purchase and interact with other. It increases IDEO's
brand reputation in the market. I feel like IDEO doesn’t necessarily have to draw up any extra
brand awareness to itself. It is a brand of making suggestion and keeping other business happy.
Right now you can't say anything about the brand without the work and that is important. I think
the reputation it is building itself within the business world is the best awareness you can get.
Their services on itself doesn’t offer end consumers a lot, the end consumers are the businesses
that hire them. IDEO is a fantastic company that has done great work and building itself a real
strong reputation for end results. I think that’s enough.

Intuit Case
Question 1. Why are consumer research and design thinking so critical to Intuit's success?

The success of any business depends on proper evaluation of the customer and this is no different
in the case of Intuit's also. When Intuits stock was 72 percent it started to focus on some strategic
efforts. Intuit launched an up-and-coming approach to focus on innovation and product
development called design thinking. These type of observational work and ongoing consumer
research with trial and product prototyping enables Intuit to understand how customers feel about
their product. Site visit, Lab study, and Remote study is used by Intuit to improve versions of its
product each year and better understanding next generation tax software.
Question 2. What are the challenges Intuit faces in the near future?
The first challenge Intuit will face in the near future is the emerging threats coming from several
financial websites that offer customers to watch their money without any fee. Banks are also
offering these services to their customers. This can surely decrease the market share of Intuit if
they don’t strategically compete with these websites. Moreover, there is another issue of
protecting the legacy of its products. Intuit has to protect Quicken ®, QuickBooks®, TurboTax®
from being copied by others. The second challenge is the dynamic market of the future which
may lead to taking more in-depth market research and keeping up with the changing
environment. As technology is changing very fast from time to time, therefore Intuit must
develop their software by adopting new technology. It should also keep deep insights of its
customers and make the software available in which form customers want to have. It also has to
take more insights about its competitors like Microsoft to compete with them.

Chapter End Question on Marketing Discussion

When was the last time you participated in a survey? How helpful do you think the
information you provided was? How could the research have been done differently to make
it more effective?

The last time I participated in a survey was in last semester. The survey was on the effectiveness
of mobile payment in retailing context which is conducted by one of my university professor.

I think the information I provided was quite helpful to the survey. I tried to give the answers of
all the questions for the survey. The survey information was given by me and I tried to give all
the information they wanted about the survey. They will know about the problems we face in
mobile payment for retailing by the information I provided for this survey. They can fix the
problems and can make the mobile payment system more flexible for retailing. The information I
provided will create a scope to solve all the barriers and make the method more fluent for people.
It will increase the number of people using mobile payment in retailing. The questionnaire was
scientifically organized and easy to understand. The concept of the questionnaire was quite clear
to answer and give information clearly.

The effectiveness of mobile payment in retailing is quite clear. I am a user of mobile payment in
retailing. This method is the most secured method for making payment. It is less risky than cash
payment. It is rapid transitions. The mobile payment in retailing is cost savings method. The
process needs improvement in some areas such as understandable to rural people. The more
people will involve themselves in this method by doing understandable it to the rural people.

Although the survey on the effectiveness of mobile payment in retailing context conducted by
our professor was successful, the research could be done in different way to make it more
effective. Good marketing research is characterized by the scientific method, creativity, multiple
research method, accurate model building, cost benefit analysis, healthy skepticism, and an
ethical focus.

To make the survey to more effective, researcher can conduct his own research by hiring a
specialist. Some of ways he can creatively and affordably conduct research include engage
students or professor to design and carry out projects, use the internet, check out rival, tap into
marketing partner and tap into employee creativity and wisdom.

Researcher must decide whether to collect their own data or use data that already exist. He must
also choose a research (observational, focus group, behavioral data) and research instruments
(questionnaire, qualitative measure or technological devices). In addition, they must decide on
sampling plan and contact method properly. Marketing research consists of many part such as
problem recognition, decision alternative, developing the research plan, collecting information,
presenting the findings to management and making the decision which must be follow properly
to make the survey more relevant.

Researcher must measure the effectiveness of the survey. Two complementary approaches to
measure the marketing productivity of the survey are: marketing metrics to assess marketing
effects and marketing mix modeling to estimate causal relationship and measure how marketing
activity effect outcome. Marketing dashboards are a structured way to disseminate the insights
gleaned from these two approaches.

Measuring the ROI of the survey is more useful to know about the effectiveness. Assessing the
ROI of the social media is challenging but requires a range of short term and long term financial
and brand related measures.

We know that data collection method is the vital thing that has an impact on the effectiveness of
the survey. Researcher may change the way of collecting data. He may host a real time consumer
panel or virtual focus group or sponsor chat room, bulletin board or blog where they introduce
question from time to time. The more accurately data can be collected, the better insights can be
gained. Marketing insights provides the diagnostic information about how and why we observe
certain effects on the marketplace and what that means to marketers.

In spite of the rapid growth of marketing research, many company fail to use it sufficiently and
correctly. In case where companies use third party researcher, they may not understand what is
capable of or provide the researcher right problem definition and information on which to work.
They may also have unrealistic expectation about what researcher can offer. Failure to use
marketing research properly has led to numerous gaffes.

At last we can say that, to improve the effectiveness of the survey, the researcher should collect
data more accurately. Realistic data can provide better insights about the problem so that the
conclusion become more realistic.