Research Design

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 Research Design: Definition

• A research design is a framework or

blueprint for conducting the research
project. It details the procedures
necessary for obtaining the information
needed to structure or solve marketing
research problems.

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 Generally speaking, a Research Design has the following
components:

Define the Information needed

Specify the measurement and scaling procedures
Construct and pre-test a questionnaire (interviewing form)
or some other appropriate form for data collection
Specify the sampling process and sample size
Develop a plan of data analysis

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 A Classification of Marketing Research
Designs

Research Design

Exploratory Conclusive
Research Design Research Design

Descriptive Causal
Research Research

Cross-Sectional Longitudinal
Design Design

Single Multiple
Cross-Sectional Cross-Sectional
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 Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal

Cross- Sample
Sectional Surveyed
Design at T1

Same
Sample Sample
Longitudinal also
Surveyed
Design Surveyed
at T1
at T2

Time T1 T2
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 Cross-Sectional Designs

• Involve the collection of information from any given sample of

population elements only once

• In single cross-sectional designs, there is only one sample

of respondents and information is obtained from this sample
only once.

• In multiple cross-sectional designs, there are two or more

samples of respondents, and information from each sample is
obtained only once. Often, information from different
samples is obtained at different times.

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 Longitudinal Designs

• A fixed sample (or samples) of population

elements is measured repeatedly on the
same variables

• A longitudinal design differs from a

cross-sectional design in that the sample or
samples remain the same over time

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 Relative Advantages and Disadvantages of
Longitudinal and Cross-Sectional Designs

Evaluation Cross-Sectional Longitudinal

Criteria Design Design

Detecting Change - +
Large amount of data collection - +
Accuracy - +
Representative Sampling + -

Note: A “+” indicates a relative advantage over the other

design, whereas a “-” indicates a relative disadvantage.

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 Research Design

Marketing Through Religiosity: A Case Study on

Rama Lala’s Consecration at Ayodhya

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 Research Design

Voter’s Attitude and Perception towards ONOE

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 Research Design

XYZ Corporation is into training and consulting. It offers some

of the well known HR training modules in the area of employee
motivation, mindfulness and work life balance. It approaches to
an organization having around 5000 employees across the
hierarchy and experience.
The three training modules are: Class room based, field based
and data based.
The HR team at the company wants some kind of research
done to understand the effectiveness and employee attitude
about all these programs considering some variable which may
be considered in the selection process. After the
recommendation, the company would like to select the most
effective training program/s for all of its employees.
How would you design this study?

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 Research Design

A Global FMCG company having presence in almost

all major consumer categories decides to change the
packaging of one of its detergent brand. The brand
management team responsible for this decision
would like to see that keeping other conditions of
Marketing constant, how would retailers respond to
this new packaging.
You are hired as a consultant for this research
project. How would you conduct this research. You
are free to make suitable assumptions.

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 A Comparison of Basic Research Designs

Exploratory Descriptive Causal

Objective: Discovery of ideas Describe market Determine cause
and insights characteristics or and effect
functions relationships

Characteristics: Flexible, versatile Marked by the prior Manipulation of

formulation of specific independent
hypotheses variables, effect
on dependent
Often the front end Preplanned and variables
of total research structured design
design Control mediating
variables
Expert surveys Secondary data:
Methods: Pilot surveys quantitative analysis Experiments
Case studies Surveys
Secondary data: Panels
qualitative analysis Observation and other
qualitative research data
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 Uses of Exploratory Research

• Formulate a problem or define a problem

more precisely
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Develop hypotheses
• Isolate key variables and relationships for
further examination
• Gain insights for developing an approach
to the problem
• Establish priorities for further research

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 Methods of Exploratory Research

• Survey of experts
• Pilot surveys
• Secondary data analyzed in a qualitative way
• Qualitative research

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 Use of Descriptive Research

• To describe the characteristics of relevant

groups, such as consumers, salespeople,
organizations, or market areas
• To estimate the percentage of units in a
specified population exhibiting a certain
behavior
• To determine the perceptions of product
characteristics
• To determine the degree to which marketing
variables are associated
• To make specific predictions
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 Methods of Descriptive Research

• Secondary data analyzed in a quantitative, as

opposed to a qualitative, manner
• Surveys
• Panels
• Observational and other data

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 Uses of Causal Research

• To understand which variables are the cause

(independent variables) and which variables
are the effect (dependent variables) of a
phenomenon
• To determine the nature of the relationship
between the causal variables and the effect to
be predicted
• METHOD: Experiments

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 Mini Research –Class Activity

Problem
Business research problem is to
determine the relative strengths and
weaknesses of Westside vis-à-vis
other major competitors with respect
to factors that influence store
patronage. Specifically, research
should provide information on the
following questions.

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 Research Questions
1. What criteria do households use when
selecting department stores?
2. How do households evaluate Westside and
competing stores in terms of the choice
criteria identified in question above?
3. Which stores are patronized when shopping
for specific product categories?
4. What is the demographic and psychological
profile of the customers of Westside? Does
it differ from the profile of customers of
competing stores?

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 SI’s Fading Jeans and Market Share

As of now, SI’s is a leading global apparel company, with sales in more

than 110 countries. It has been a long standing company with over 150
years of being in the clothing industry. While one may think this long
history can only results in good things. SI’s heritage has its worst enemy.
Philip Marinau, the President and Chief Operating officer for SI’S Strauss
Co., had to work hard to revamp Strauss antique image and make the
brand appealing to younger generation in order to boost its declining sales.
In the last five years, Philip saw worldwide sales drop 40 per cent, losing
market share to competitors like the Gap and trendier ones such as Calvin
Klein, Tommy Highflier and Diesel. Another problem to Philip came from
store brand jeans such as JC Penny’s Arizona brand jeans or the Gaps
in-house brand which have changed their image and launched an assault
on big brand name like Strauss Co. These store brand jeans along with
other store label jeans, now target the teenage market with cutting edge
advertising. The industry experts claims that brand has lost about 50 per
cent of the younger consumer market worldwide during last couple of
years.

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 The marketing research decision

If you are Philip, what type of research would you

want to conduct to understand the reasons of
decline in sales and appropriate strategy of sales
recovery?

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