Professional Documents
Culture Documents
emassfile_534The Market Research Toolbox A Concise Guide For Beginners full chapter pdf docx
emassfile_534The Market Research Toolbox A Concise Guide For Beginners full chapter pdf docx
https://ebookmass.com/product/stock-market-books-3-in-1-the-best-
beginners-stock-option-guide-about-how-to-become-a-professional-
trader-livmor/
https://ebookmass.com/product/autodesk-fusion-360-a-power-guide-
for-beginners-and-intermediate-users-2nd/
https://ebookmass.com/product/the-sourcebook-for-clinical-
research-a-practical-guide-for-study-conduct-martien/
https://ebookmass.com/product/a-beginners-guide-to-
python-3-programming-2nd-edition-john-hunt/
Coding for Kids 5 Books in 1: Javascript, Python and
C++ Guide for Kids and Beginners (Coding for Absolute
Beginners) Mather
https://ebookmass.com/product/coding-for-kids-5-books-
in-1-javascript-python-and-c-guide-for-kids-and-beginners-coding-
for-absolute-beginners-mather/
https://ebookmass.com/product/graduate-research-fourth-edition-a-
guide-for-students-in-the-sciences-densmore/
https://ebookmass.com/product/beyond-discovery-moving-academic-
research-to-the-market-schelhorn/
https://ebookmass.com/product/advanced-algos-outsmarting-the-
market-one-algorithm-at-a-time-a-comprehensive-algorithmic-
trading-guide-for-2024-bissette/
https://ebookmass.com/product/chemistry-for-kids-a-complete-
chemistry-guide-for-beginners-practical-guide-to-chemistry-
science-fair-periodic-table-chemical-bonds-alice-mcgraw-hill/
8
Preface
This book is aimed at managers and business people. I assume that however accomplished in
your own field—computer engineering, perhaps—and however experienced in business, you
approach the topic of market research as a beginner. The aim, then, is an initial orientation, a
guided tour of the topic—an overview.
Until this book came along, the manager seeking such a briefing had few good options: (1)
purchase a bona fide market research textbook, up to 1,000 pages in length, and try to extract
what you need; (2) purchase a series of small volumes on specific market research techniques,
aimed at specialists and often written at an advanced level, and try to integrate these accounts
on your own; (3) put your faith in a consultant and their research technique of choice; or (4)
wing it.
The goal, then, is a thin volume intended to provide an overview to the interested reader
seeking a place to begin. My assumption is that you need to get your bearings (What is
conjoint analysis anyway?), or maybe to conduct some market research (Would a focus group
make sense here?), or perhaps to interpret a market research effort that someone else has
championed (Can I trust the results of this survey?).
I want to emphasize that this book is written primarily for decision makers. In tone, manner,
and approach, the envisioned reader is a manager who has to decide whether to do market
research, what objectives to pursue, and what specific kind of research to implement. This is
not a standard textbook, as a glance through the pages will make clear: it lacks the boxed
inserts, the snazzy graphics, and the chunking of text into bite-size morsels expected in that
marketplace. And as will soon be apparent, it doesn’t read like a textbook: the tone is direct
and the style more oral than written.
Instead, the treatment strives to be concrete and specific: Do this. Don’t do that. Watch out
for this problem. Try this solution. The guiding idea is that managers are impatient people
subject to conflicting demands who must act now. This book offers a practical approach
addressed to their needs.
On the other hand, the book has been used successfully for many years at diverse educational
levels, often as a supplemental reading, and this fourth edition includes a number of
9
adaptations to address its use in a classroom (see “Note on Pedagogy,” below). In my view,
because of its intended focus on adult learners, it is best adapted to an MBA course aimed at
working professionals, or to similarly targeted Executive Education offerings. The
instructional materials that accompany the book assume an MBA class setting and further
assume that the book will be combined with other readings and with Harvard-style cases.
The book has also been used at the undergraduate level, but here the instructor should have a
definite reason for not adopting a conventional market research textbook (i.e., distaste for
that style or the typical topic coverage), and a plan to supplement this book with other
material. Whatever the level, the more the class consists of adult learners with some business
experience the more successful this book is likely to be.
In this fourth edition I have tried to keep these two audiences clearly in mind, labeling certain
content as aimed at the one or the other, and incorporating some pedagogical material into
the text, so that the nonstudent reader can grapple with it if he or she chooses to do so.
This book is distinctive in one other way: It focuses on business-to-business and technology
examples. Modern market research as we know it was pioneered in the early middle of the
20th century to meet the needs of companies like Procter & Gamble, Quaker Oats, and
Ralston Purina. Soap, cereal, pet food, and the like continue to be prominent among the
examples and illustrations used to teach market research in the typical university course. This
is entirely appropriate for textbooks aimed at a broad audience because consumer packaged-
goods companies continue to spend large sums on market research and to provide many of
the career opportunities in market research. However, living in California’s Silicon Valley, my
experience base is different. The research problems with which I am familiar preoccupy
companies like Hewlett-Packard, Apple Computer, Cisco, and Oracle. Markets may be small
and concentrated, products are often complex and expensive, customer expenditures are
driven by the need to solve real business problems, and technologies are dynamic and rapidly
changing. Although much of the accumulated wisdom of market research is just as relevant to
Hewlett-Packard as to Procter & Gamble, I have found it has to be taught differently. The
readers I have in mind are impatient with examples based on the marketing of soap. They
don’t want to have to make the translation from mass markets, simple products, and stable
technologies to their own rather different situation.
If you fall within the core audience for this book, then you are a beginner and not a specialist.
One of the important contributions of the book is to direct you to further reading. There
10
exists an enormous amount of specialized material on market research. Part of my job is to
help you sort through it so you can find the next book you need to read. If you intend to
execute a particular market research project yourself, you certainly will need to read more than
this book—for the sake of brevity, this book won’t go into a great deal of depth on any single
technique but will merely open the toolbox and explain its contents and application. This
book will tell you what a hammer is, what it does to a nail, when it is useful to drive nails,
and when you might be better off using a bolt and wrench, but it won’t train you to do
carpentry. The assumption throughout is that “carpenters” (experts) are available to you.
Thus, the focus can be on the background context and the questions that need to be asked
before you hire a carpenter (or embark on your self-taught career as a carpenter).
In summary, the target audience for the book is a person who has established him- or herself
in business but who has never had occasion to take a course on market research—or, perhaps,
any business course. Now in your new position the buzzwords come flying, budgets are under
review, and the question presses: “What the heck is market research, anyway?”
11
Plan of the Book
Part I describes how to think about market research in the context of business decisions.
Market research is only a means to the end of business success. It aids in but can never
guarantee the achievement of profit. Market research almost always costs money—hard,
assignable dollars that come out of an individual manager’s budget. Therefore, like any
investment, market research has to be justified in terms of an expected return. Part I answers
questions about what market research is, what kinds of market research techniques exist, what
objectives can be met by market research, and what payoff to expect from market research.
The purpose of Part I is to equip you with the necessary vocabulary and organizing concepts
to think intelligently about how market research might assist you in your own situation.
Part II describes two archival research techniques: use of secondary data, and application of
what is typically called “Big Data.” The latter chapter is new to this fourth edition. The
unifying theme of Part II is that here you do not need to collect data—it has already been
compiled. The task is to figure out what to do with this data, and more particularly to
examine whether it could save you the time and expense of collecting data yourself. All of the
chapters in Parts III and IV, by contrast, presume that you have taken archival data as far as it
can go, and that wasn’t far enough, forcing you to go out and collect new data.
Part III introduces the two major qualitative research techniques in use today: customer visits
and focus groups. The overview puts these two techniques in the context of other qualitative
research techniques. Subsequent chapters discuss interview design and sampling issues that
are common across all qualitative research techniques.
Part IV presents the major quantitative research techniques in use today, beginning with the
technique most familiar to beginners to market research: the survey. Separate chapters discuss
issues of questionnaire design, sampling, and data analysis. This part also includes two
chapters on experimental methods in common use in commercial market research.
The departure from the conventional textbook approach is most stark in the case of Part IV.
The typical market research textbook, whether undergraduate or graduate, devotes hundreds
of pages to sampling theory and to the statistical analysis of data. The goal in this book is
more limited: to provide the briefest possible introduction to these foundational skills
consistent with providing useful insights for the managerial reader. The fact of the matter is
12
that most managers will outsource to specialists the tasks of drawing a sample and analyzing
the data. Nonetheless, managers are responsible for selecting these specialists and vetting the
results of their efforts. The chapters on sampling and data analysis aim only to give a manager
in that situation a leg up.
In Part V the first chapter describes how market research techniques can be combined to
address a major business decision, and then steps back to assess the boundary conditions on
market research. The goal of the first chapter in this section is twofold: first, to link
individual research techniques to the business problems for which they are best suited; and
second, to show how multiple research techniques can be combined over time to address
large-scale business problems. That is, execution of a single market research technique may be
sufficient to answer some specific question or to close some narrowly defined knowledge gap.
However, most substantial business challenges, such as selecting a new market to enter or
deciding where new product development efforts should be focused, require the application of
multiple research techniques in sequence over time. Thus, the initial chapter in Part V gives
examples of how techniques can be combined and sequenced. The final chapter wraps up the
book by considering some particular cases, representative of a large number of business
situations, where market research may be neither possible nor pertinent. It circles back to the
basic theme of the book: Managers are people who have to make decisions under conditions
of uncertainty. Sometimes market research can reduce uncertainty to a manageable level;
sometimes it cannot. The manager still has to decide, research or no.
13
Who Should Read This Book?
14
Product Manager–Marketing
You may already have a business education, perhaps an MBA, and may even have one or
more market research courses under your belt. If so, this book provides a refresher course,
reinforcing your grasp of basic principles now that your schooling lies years in the past.
Perhaps more important, it provides a resource that you can give to members of your work
group in order to bring them up to speed on the contribution of market research generally
and the rationale for individual research techniques. Especially in technology firms, market
research won’t get done—or worse, won’t get used—unless multiple constituencies outside
the product management function accept the need for and value delivered by market research.
Thus, this book can help to elevate the discussion of research issues in your work group.
Finally, if you are in a business-to-business (B2B) or technology firm, you may also find this
book helpful in linking your business education, which may have emphasized packaged-goods
examples, to your current job, with its rather different imperatives.
15
R&D Project Manager
You have the responsibility to create and design what the firm offers, with development of a
new product the clearest example. It is your job to marshal people and resources to achieve a
project goal. Today, that includes doing market research. Although you can reasonably expect
considerable assistance from marketing staff, the effectiveness of the market research done for
you will often be a crucial determinant of the project’s success; hence, there is a limit to how
much you can delegate in this area. You will probably be among the most intent and focused
readers of this book inasmuch as when you finish, you will have to act: to request a budget,
spend money, commit employee time. This book tries to answer as many of your questions as
possible.
16
Quality Professional
Your charge today is customer satisfaction, not defect minimization. Depending on the
culture of your firm, you may have assumed responsibilities classically assigned to the
marketing function, for instance, building a commitment to customer satisfaction on the part
of employees throughout the firm. You have solid statistical training but have grown uneasy
about the heavy reliance on surveys commonly found within the quality literature. This book
helps you to grasp the possibilities inherent in the whole toolbox. It also helps you to think
about statistics in the context of social science—that is, the behavior of humans—rather than
the production context where your statistical education probably began.
17
Executive
You are at a level where business strategy is set. Like many contemporary executives, you are
probably receptive to the idea that being market focused is important, but, also like many, you
are not entirely sure how this laudable goal can be implemented in a timely and cost-effective
manner. For you, this book serves two purposes. It provides a briefing and reminder of what
market research can and cannot do (this is particularly helpful if your background is technical
and not business based), and it provides a resource you can recommend to your people and to
the training function within your firm.
18
Instructor
You may be considering this book for use as a supplement in courses on product planning,
customer analysis, competitor analysis, B2B marketing, and the like. These are courses that
often include a project or other activity where students must gather data or make
recommendations about data gathering. You’ve often wished there was a book you could
assign as supplemental reading that would help students think about how to gather market
data (including where to find additional information on specific research techniques). Until
finding this book, you faced the unpalatable alternatives of (1) expecting them to find on
their own a comprehensive market research textbook and read the appropriate sections
(because you can’t assume that your students have necessarily taken a market research course);
or (2) hoping they will find, assemble, and read specialist volumes on focus groups, surveys,
and so forth, and then make an intelligent choice among them; or (3) scheduling enough
office hours to help students work through the above issues.
Instructors who adopt this book can obtain a sample syllabus along with a guide to selecting
and teaching cases to accompany the book by visiting www.sagepub.com/mcquarrie . If you
do assign this book in your class, I’d be interested to hear about your experiences—e-mail me
at emcquarrie@scu.edu.
19
A Note on Pedagogy
Because the book has frequently been used in classroom settings, I’ve added some pedagogical
elements to this fourth edition to facilitate that use. Even if you are reading this as an
independent professional, you may be able to use this material to engage more actively the
content of the book.
Near the end of each chapter I’ve listed several discussion questions or exercises. These
are meant to stimulate reflection, not foreclose it. For most of these questions, there is
no short answer, and for many of them, there is no straightforward or obvious “right”
answer. Their purpose is to deepen understanding. My metric in writing these was,
Could I use this as an essay question on a final exam? Or, Could I use it to engage an
MBA class of working professionals in an extended discussion?
After over thirty years in the classroom, it is nearly impossible for me to teach a
marketing class without placing heavy reliance on Harvard cases. Hence, at the end of
each part you will find the cases that I use when teaching market research to MBA
students at Santa Clara University. The purpose of these cases is to provide extended,
vivid examples of the kind of market research planning decisions faced by actual
managers.
For each of these cases, I give a brief synopsis, generally with a different focus than what
Harvard supplies on its website (http://hbsp.harvard.edu), where the complete case can
be purchased. The goal is to show how this case can be used in a class that also uses
Toolbox. Not all of these cases were originally designed to be “market research” cases,
and my use of them may not reflect the intentions of their authors.
After each case I supply questions to guide students’ reading. These are also the kind of
questions that I use to structure class discussion of the case.
In a few instances, there will also be fictional cases that I wrote, and the full text of these
is included.
Finally, at the end of each chapter there are suggested readings. In most cases, these are
more in-depth or specialized readings that can help you go beyond the introductory
treatment provided in this book. Annotations explain what each suggested reading
might accomplish for you.
20
21
Acknowledgments
I received all of my training in market research “in the field,” and I’d like to acknowledge
some of the individuals and firms from whom I learned the most. Particular thanks go to
Nick Calo, Mike Kuhn, Ron Tatham, and many others at Burke Marketing Research, where
I got my start moderating focus groups and doing copy tests of advertisements; to Dave
Stewart of the University of Southern California and Bill BonDurant of Hewlett-Packard’s
Market Research and Information Center, for introducing me to best practices in the
planning of market research; to Lew Jamison and Karen Thomas at Sun Microsystems, for
inviting me to design a course on market research, thus giving me the confidence to attempt
this book; and to Klaus Hoffmann and Tomas Lang, of HP Marketing Education in Europe,
for the initial opportunity to teach marketing research to managers. In more recent years, I’d
like to acknowledge Richard Mander and Sandra Lukey for opportunities to teach on these
topics in New Zealand, Alex Cooper and Tracey Kimball of Management Roundtable for
opportunities to reach a broader spectrum of professionals and managers, Chris Halliwell for
insight into market research and new product development, and John Chisholm, formerly of
CustomerSat, for stimulating discussions about survey research in the age of the Internet. I
also want to thank the editor for the first edition, Marquita Flemming at Sage, for actually
giving me the impetus; Al Bruckner at Sage, editor for the second edition, for encouraging a
revision; Deya Jacobs, for believing enough in the merits of the book to encourage a third
edition; and Pat Quinlan and Maggie Stanley for bringing this fourth edition to fruition.
Over the years, I’ve benefitted from discussions with many of my colleagues in the marketing
department at Santa Clara, beginning with Shelby McIntyre and continuing most recently
with stimulating discussions of the limitations of market research with Kirthi Kalyanam and
Kumar Sarangee. I would also like to thank the following individuals who assisted in the
preparation of the manuscript through their careful and thoughtful reviews: Stacey Barlow
Hills, Southern Vermont College–Bennington; Vaidas Lukosius, Tennessee State
University–Nashville; Christopher P. Hogan, University of Chicago–Chicago; Dennis
Devlin, University of Cincinnati–Cincinnati; Ronald E. Goldsmith, Florida State University–
Tallahassee; and Michael A. Jones, University of Tennessee–Chattanooga. Finally, I’d like to
acknowledge the contribution of the thousands of managers and professionals who’ve sat
through one or another seminar of mine, where we strove together to differentiate qualitative
and quantitative market research and come to some defensible conclusions about the
22
comparative merits of each.
23
Part I Introduction
24
ONE Nature and Characteristics of Market Research
The activities that can be described as “market research” cover a vast territory, and it would
require a hefty volume to offer a comprehensive overview of all the activities that might be
labeled by this term. This book has a much tighter focus. Here, market research means
techniques for gathering information from and about customers to support a business decision. The
starting point, then, is that you are a businessperson who faces a challenging, important, and
probably risky decision. The question is whether collecting information from or about
customers could lead to a better decision. If your answer to this question is a tentative “yes,”
then you are considering whether to do market research. You hope to address an information
gap that prevents you from making the best decision possible. And that’s the purpose of
market research.
The answer will not always be yes, let’s do market research. Managers are faced with countless
decisions. Not all of these decisions can be improved by collecting data from or about
customers. One reason is that many business decisions aren’t marketing decisions (for
instance, What metrics should I apply to determine this year’s annual raise for my
employees?). But not even all marketing decisions benefit from market research. First of all,
the decision has to be big and important enough to justify the cost—as we’ll see, market
research can be quite expensive. Second, the decision has to have a long enough time frame to
allow for data collection. And finally, the decision has to be such as to benefit from collecting
data from or about customers. Suppose instead that your product development path depends
on the decision of an international standards body that is currently riven by dissension. It’s
unlikely that time or money spent on getting information from customers can give you
insight into how that standards body will rule.
Conversely, the answer will almost certainly be yes, do consider doing market research, if
there is enough money at stake and any of the information gaps listed below stand between
you and a good decision.
25
what they are (un)happy about, or what’s driving this (un)happiness;
how customers select a vendor, search for information, decide where to shop, and so
forth;
what drives the choice of one product configuration over another;
how much they’d be willing to pay; and
how many would buy at this price.
In summary, you should consider doing market research whenever you feel unable to decide
because you lack information from or about customers. If you’re not faced with a decision,
you can’t really justify doing market research. (You may and should collect marketing
intelligence on an ongoing basis, but that’s not covered in this book.) If it isn’t a marketing
decision, or information from customers can’t really help, then too you should not be doing
market research.
The point here is that market research is not like controlling costs, making processes more
efficient, eating right, getting exercise, or any of the many activities that have to be done day
in, day out. The need for market research only arises at specific points in time. No decision
looming, or no ability to identify the decision, and/or no information gap indicates no
opportunity or need for market research. As a businessperson, you don’t do market research
because it’s virtuous; you do it when and if it promises a payoff.
26
How Many Kinds of Market Research?
The two fundamental modes of doing market research are exploratory and confirmatory. You
either have a discovery orientation—a goal of generating possibilities and new ideas—or you
want to narrow things down and eliminate possibilities so as to select the one best option—
the right answer. Most exploratory research uses qualitative techniques: You want a better
grasp of the different qualities of customer response. Most confirmatory research uses
quantitative techniques: You want to count the frequency of or measure the strength of the
various qualities of response identified during the exploratory phases. The distinction
between qualitative and quantitative techniques provides an organizing framework for the
book.
Different techniques apply when you are exploring or confirming. For instance, a focus group
can’t confirm much of anything, but it can generate lots of new possibilities. A survey can
give exact estimates, but only about the things you already know. If you can keep the
distinction between qualitative and quantitative modes straight in your mind, you will avoid
the worst mistakes. Most of the horror stories in market research involve trying to make a
qualitative technique do confirmatory work or rushing ahead to perform a highly precise
quantitative technique before doing the necessary exploration.
So one answer to “How many kinds of market research?” is: There are just two. There are two
basic approaches to collecting data from or about customers, corresponding to two different
purposes: exploratory investigations of the specific qualities that customer response can take
on versus confirmatory investigations designed to count or quantify the qualities discovered
earlier.
From a slightly different angle, if we focus on what the market researcher actually does in
collecting customer data, we can also distinguish four fundamental activities:
Search an archive.
Ask customers questions.
Observe what customers do.
Arrange for customers to respond to structured stimuli.
Combining the two purposes and four actions produces a roadmap to the named market
27
research techniques to which the bulk of the book is devoted, as laid out next.
Purposes
Exploratory Confirmatory
Customer visits
Ask: Surveys
ACTIONS Focus groups
Experiments
Arrange stimuli: [null set]
Conjoint analysis
Note that there’s no such thing as an exploratory experiment. Experimentation is the epitome
of confirmatory research; so is conjoint analysis, which is a kind of experiment, as described
later. The table sketches out a point that will be crucial throughout: Some market research
techniques, such as exploratory techniques, typically come into play early in the decision
process, when discovery is a priority, and others not until much later. Experiments are
necessarily a tool used late in the decision cycle; they are the confirmatory tools par
excellence. Finally, secondary research can be pursued in either an exploratory or confirmatory
mode, depending on what kind of information is being sought for what purpose.
28
Research Techniques
With these preliminaries out of the way, let me introduce to you the specific techniques to
which this book provides a concise guide. The metaphor that guides the book is that a
manager trying to build an understanding of customers has available a toolbox. Like a
carpenter’s toolbox, it contains the equivalent of a hammer, a screwdriver, a wrench, a saw,
and so forth. Now think for a moment about how a carpenter uses that toolbox. Does he pick
up a screwdriver when he has a nail to drive? Of course not; the screwdriver is the wrong tool
for that purpose. Does he throw the screwdriver away because it’s a failure in doing such a
poor job of driving nails? Not at all; he knows it will come in handy later, when he has to set
a screw (try setting a screw with a hammer). The carpenter seeks the right tool for the job.
Since a lot of different jobs have to be done in the course of building a house, he lugs the
whole toolbox to the job site. Imagine how strange it would be if instead he brought only a 9-
inch socket wrench and proclaimed: “I am going to construct this entire house using only this
one tool.”
This book presumes that as a beginner in market research, you need to see the contents of the
toolbox laid out one by one. You don’t want to be like the little boy handed a hammer to
whom the whole world looked like a nail—you want to use the right tool for the job. You
don’t reach for the hammer every time. You don’t throw away the screwdriver because it
bruised your thumb the first time you tried to drive a nail with it. In the next chapter, we’ll
distinguish specific “jobs” and match tools to jobs, as hammer to nails, wrench to bolts, and
so on. Here, using Table 1.1, I want only to name the tools to be addressed and give you a
taste of what each involves in concrete terms.
With the tools laid out, let me clarify how the content coverage in this not-a-market-
research-textbook differs from that of a more conventional treatment.
29
research someone else for other broken out by geographical region,
purposes industry, etc.
30
could be advertising appeals, subject line drew more people to your
price points, or simply the website.
presence or absence of a
particular product feature.
First, Big Data is actually just a particular form of secondary research. However, enough
people think of Big Data as something new and different to make it worthwhile to give it a
chapter of its own. Note also that Big Data is a really huge topic in its own right, and
consistent with the limited purposes of this book, I’ll only be treating a small piece of it. My
focus will be more particularly on Big Data concerning customer behaviors.
Second, the term “customer visit” rarely appears in a conventional market research textbook,
and its absence reveals more than anything else the business-to-consumer (B2C) focus of
most such books. In such textbook treatments this chapter would instead be labeled
“interviews,” “one-on-one interviews,” or in older treatments “depth interviews.” More
commonly, individual interviews would be lumped together with focus groups, under
headings like exploratory research, qualitative, or just “interviewing customers.” Whether
individual or group, the interviews would take place in a specialized facility and be conducted
by a trained professional, and this context is assumed in most textbook discussions.
I learned decades ago that actual practice in B2B and technology firms is quite different.
Interviews do play an important role in B2B research, but they almost never take place off site
in specialized facilities, and they rarely involve an outside moderator. Rather, teams from the
vendor visit customers at their place of work and interview them there. The reason is two-
fold: (1) in B2B categories, there are often multiple individuals to be visited at each firm; and
31
(2) because of the complexity of many B2B products, it is important to be able to observe the
product in use.
Given my target audience, I only devote chapters to the customer visit and focus group
techniques, as both of these are regularly used by B2B firms. The overview to Part II situates
these two tools in the larger context of qualitative research techniques, including techniques
more commonly seen in B2C contexts, like ethnography.
In the next chapter, each of the tools named in the table will be described in somewhat more
detail, and with particular attention to where they fit in the overall decision cycle. The goal is
to get across the distinctive competency of each tool, which is simultaneously to reveal the
failing, shortcomings, and limits of each tool. The specifics of executing research using each
technique are then covered in the following chapters.
32
Discussion Questions
1. The chapter suggested that secondary versus primary research, and within primary research, qualitative versus
quantitative, provided an exhaustive compartmentalization of the market research techniques now available.
Can you think of any market research procedure that doesn’t fit into those compartments and went
unmentioned in this chapter? How about a research technique that can’t be easily classified into just one of
those compartments?
2. Give examples of business decisions where it might be helpful to gather information, but where that data
collection effort would not be termed “market research” under the criteria advanced in this chapter.
a. Extra Credit: Give examples in marketing, rather than in other functional areas of business (giving a
human resources example is almost too easy). Can there be information gathering, performed by a
marketing manager in the ordinary course of his or her duties, that can’t be described as some kind of
“market research”?
3. This book confines itself to market research in the context of a for-profit firm competing in the sort of
economic environment found in the United States around the turn of the 21st century. Obviously, there is no
law that prevents a charity, a university, a government agency, or any other kind of organization from
conducting focus groups, doing surveys, or even running a conjoint study.
a. Select two specific “nonprofit” organizations from different sectors (for example, the American Red
Cross versus the Pentagon, or your university versus the Salvation Army).
b. Next, select a specific for-profit firm in an industry or product category you know well (think carefully
about whether you want this to be a B2C or B2B firm).
c. Finally, select two or three specific market research techniques. What will be similar, and what will be
different, about the use of each technique by the nonprofits versus the profit-seeking firm you chose?
Will there also be a difference between the two nonprofits?
33
Suggested Readings
Journal of Marketing The leading academic journals in this area, JMR features highly
Research (JMR) technical articles that emphasize tests of theories and new
analytic techniques, while MS emphasizes the development and
Marketing Science testing of mathematical models of marketing phenomena such
(MS) as price elasticity and the effects of promotional expenditure.
Journal of Advertising
Research (JAR) These are two leading practitioner-focused journals. JAR offers
research on all aspects of advertising, and often reports studies
Journal of Product based on real-world data. JPIM is a good source for current
Innovation thinking on new product development.
Management (JPIM)
34
Green Book Use this volume to find specialists in one or another market
(greenbook.org) research technique, and contact information for vendors of
market research services.
35
Another random document with
no related content on Scribd:
mellett küzdhet, kötelességének érzetében megfeledkezett
mindenről. – Ő ellene vala a halálos büntetésnek általában véve is,
de kettősen az, hol a vissza nem vehető ítélet oly formákhoz köttetik,
melyek a birót csalódások ellen nem biztosítják. Neki nem fért
fejébe, miként lehet egy részről kimondani, hogy rögtönítélő
törvényszék halálos ítéletnél egyebet nem mondhat ki, s a másikról
elmellőzni mindazon formákat, melyek ott, hol sokkal kisebb
büntetésekről van szó, mellőzhetetleneknek tartatnak, s csak azért
fogadta el örömmel kiküldetését, mert meg vala győződve, hogy mint
a törvényszék jegyzője, a halálos ítélet elhárítására alkalmat
találand. Először gondolhatá hasznosnak, szükségesnek magát, s
keblében feltámadt egész önérzete. – Hogy egy tiszteletbeli
alügyész fáradozásai ennyi táblabirói meggyőződés ellenében
sikerhez nem vezethettek, azt olvasóim közül legalább azok, kik
közdolgokban megfordultak, által fogják látni. Oly országban, hol az,
vajjon szólhatunk-e? születésünktől függ, csak következetes, ha a
szólók között is nem az, mit mondanak, hanem csak a polgári állás,
melyet elfoglalnak, vétetik tekintetbe, s csak Völgyesy
tapasztalatlanságát bizonyítja, hogy őt ezen neheztelni látjuk. De
hogy miután eddig nem tudta még, miként mívelt századunkban
valamint nem jó púpos háttal, úgy nem veszély nélküli egyenes
lélekkel születni, mert azok, kiknél a nevelés a lelket az életre
szükséges görbeségekkel el nem látta, örök kisebbségre ítélvék, e
tapasztalás az ifjúnak fájt; az szinte természetes, s nem is
bámulhatjuk, ha a gúnyt, melyet Macskaházy nyájas mosolygása
rosszul takart, észrevéve, indulatát nem mérsékelheté és midőn
székéről felkelt, azon szavakkal adta át Macskaházynak az
irományokat, miszerint a világnak minden kincsei őt nem fogják arra
birni, hogy az egész eljárásban, melyet birói gyilkolásnál egyébnek
nem tarthat, legkisebb részt vegyen.
Kár, hogy epikus költő nem vagyok, soha szebb mezőm
hivatásom bebizonyítására nem vala, mint midőn Völgyesy ezen
szavainak következését leirnám. Homer Achilles haragjának
festésével kezdi Iliászát, de mi egy Achilles öt táblabiróhoz mérve? s
hol találni szavakat azon indulat leirására, mely mint tudva van, nem
haszontalan kardok kivonásában, hanem feltarthatlan szóárban
mutatkozik?
– Ez gazság! – kiáltott Nyúzó.
– Infamia, – mondá Zátonyi.
– Kövesse meg magát! – rikácsolt Macskaházy.
Sóskuty oly sebesen hadart, hogy még első szavait sem
érthettük, s maga Kislaky, mennyire rögtön pirosuló arczain
észrevehetni, haraggal monda valamit a zaj között.
– Tekintetes táblabiró urak! – mondá végre Völgyesy, miután nem
kis erőködés után szóhoz jöhetett, – én nem akartam senkit
személyesen sérteni; engedjék, hogy szavaimat megmagyarázzam.
– Megmagyarázni, megmagyarázni, mit? – kiáltott Zátonyi mindig
mérgesebben, – azt, hogy a tekintetes törvényszék gyilkosokból áll?
De tudja-e, hogy az úrnak többé szava nincs? Az, ki birákat
dehonestál, infamis; az úr infamis.
– Igen, – szólt közbe a báró, – infamisnak declaráljuk.
– Statarialis úton? – vága közbe Völgyesy keserű mosolygással.
– Statarialis úton vagy máskép, az nekem mindegy, – folytatá az
előbbi, – a ki biró vagy törvényszék ellen így beszél, az infamis,
benn áll a corpus jurisban, nincs kétség és pedig egészen helyesen
van. Törvénykezési rendszerünket dehonestálni szörnyűség!
– Est ad horripilationem! – kiáltott közbe Zátonyi. S ez általános
borzadás, melyet minden jelenlevők, volt jegyzőjök merényén, majd
deákul, majd magyarul hangosan kifejeztek, nem engedé, hogy a
szólót tovább lehessen hallani. Magyar törvénykezési rendszerünk,
tudósaink véleménye szerint, az Anjou-ház uralkodása alatt hozatott
be hazánkba Francziaországból; igen valószinű, hogy a kocsonya is
ugyanezen fejedelmek alatt terjedt el honunkban, legalább a franczia
név: cochonade erre látszik mutatni; s talán e két nemzeti
jótéteménynek köszönheti ez idegen ház, hogy közüle egy a
nagynak nevével tiszteltetett meg, melyre Hunyady Mátyásunkat
nem tartottuk méltónak. – Völgyesy, ki e két, honunkban
legkedvesebb indigenák egyike ellen felszólalt, csak magának
tulajdoníthatá az ingerültséget, melylyel mindenki ellene fellépett. Az
infamiávali fenyegetések azonban, úgy látszott, nem tevék meg
hatásukat, s a jegyző nyugodtan jártatá szemeit az egész társaság
felett, míg végre ismét szóhoz juthatott.
– Mondjanak ki reám törvényes infamiát statarialis úton, ha úgy
tetszik, – szóla megindulás nélkül, – de engedjék meg, hogy nem
azok kedveért, kik úgy látszik, a rab kivégeztetésénél egyebet nem
kívánnak, hanem azon mély tiszteletnél fogva, melylyel elnökünk
iránt viseltetem –
– Captatio benevolentiæ! – kiáltott közbe Zátonyi – tisztelt
elnökünk nem szorult ilyenre ily emberektől –
– A teins törvényszéknek nincs figyelmeztetésre szüksége, –
lármázott közbe a báró.
– Azon nehéz felelet terhére, mely minden itt jelen volt tagra
háramolni fog, ha e jelen eljárás szomorú végéig folytattatnék.
– Mi a manó! birót feleletre vonni? hallatlan! – mondá Sóskuty.
Zátonyi, burnótszelenczéjébe nyulva, megjegyzé, hogy csak
ijesztgetni akar.
– Halljuk, halljuk! – szólt Kislaky a legnagyobb figyelemmel.
Völgyesy, az utasítással kezében, figyelmessé tevé a
törvényszéket, hogy a rögtönítélő törvényszék, csak a mennyiben
magát szigorúan szabályaihoz tartja, járhat el törvényesen; már
pedig ezek szerint a jelen eset nem tartozik hatásköréhez.
– Ez szép ignorantia, – mondá Zátonyi megvetőleg, – azonban
mai időben fiatal embereknél megszoktuk; soha Violánál inkább
statarium alá való rab nem volt.
– Igen, de a többi környülállások? – szólt közbe az ifjú ügyész.
– Szörnyű tudatlanság! – mondá a táblabiró mindig fentebb
hangon – talán nem ellentállva fogatott el? vagy Tengelyi irásait
azért rabolta el, hogy magát velök táplálja? mi szinte mentségül
szolgálhatna; vagy nem húsz éves még? vagy zavart elméjű? vagy
azon haramja csoport vezérei és czimborái, melyhez tartozott,
rendes törvényszék elébe állíttattak? – Zátonyi ez elsorolás alatt
önmegelégedéssel körültekintve, szelenczéjével, melyet minden
egyes kérdésénél markához csapott, mintegy magának tapsolt.
Völgyesy csak azt jegyzé meg, hogy az eset olyan, melyet a
törvényszék három nap alatt tisztába nem hozhat.
– Három nap alatt? – válaszolt Zátonyi nevetve – majd meglátjuk;
három nap alatt husz ily gazemberen túladunk; most is rég
bevégeztük volna teendőinket, ha az úr impertinens
kapczáskodásaival nem zavar.
– S hát elfeledni méltóztatott a rabnak vallomását, melyben
bizonyos vádak –
– Ez nem tartozik a dologhoz, – szakítá félbe a szólót Sóskuty, –
az irományokban nem áll semmi, s én el fogom feledni.
– Méltóságos uram! – szóla Völgyesy bámulva.
– Ő méltóságának teljesen igaza van – szólt Zátonyi, – mindazon
badar beszéd, mit a rabtól hallottunk, nem a species facti-hoz való;
minderről a jegyzőkönyvben szólni fölösleges. Sok dolga volna az
embernek, ha minden haszontalanságot, mit a rab magát
mentegetve elmond, fel kellene jegyezni.
– De az irományok kiegészítése? – vága közbe Völgyesy mindig
hevesebben.
– Haszontalan formaság, – válaszolt a táblabiró, – s itt az
utasítás hatodik részének ötödik szakában világosan azon
meghagyás áll, hogy e törvényszék minden, a törvénykezés rendes
útján különben szokásban levő formaságok mellőztével ítél.
– Igen, mi minden törvényes formák ellen ítélhetünk, mint nekünk
tetszik, – ismételte a báró méltósággal.
– Hogy a tekintetes urak a rabot felakaszthatják, – kiálta végre
Völgyesy minden mérsékletét vesztve, – az nem szenved kétséget;
de hogy eljárásukat soha birói eljárásnak tartani nem fogom, hogy
benne soha mást erőszaknál nem látandok, az szintén igaz.
– Micsoda? – kiáltott három hang egyszerre.
– A törvényszék nem áll oly férfiakból, minők az utasítás szerint a
birói helyek betöltésére kívánttatnak.
– Ez sok, ez már mégis sok! – kiáltott Zátonyi felugorva székéről,
– nem vagyunk-e mi táblabirák? nem eskettettünk-e meg ülés
kezdetén, hogy ítéletünket egészen a legfelsőbb helyen
meghatározott szabályok szerint fogjuk kimondani?
– S nem vagyunk-e törvénytudó, érett és nyilítéletü férfiak? –
folytatá a báró.
– Ki vele! ki vele! – harsogott Nyúzó.
– Actiót! – kiáltott Sóskuty.
Sok idő kellett, míg Völgyesy a zaj között érthetővé teheté magát
arra nézve, hogy meggyőződése szerint a biróban
részrehajlatlanság is szükséges.
– Bliktri! – harsogott Zátonyi – erről nem áll semmi az
instructióban.
– Igen és ha volna, – folytatá körülhadarászva kezeivel Sóskuty,
– ki vádolhat minket részrehajlással? Mondatott-e csak egy szó a
rabnak védelmére, kivevén uraságod által, kinek, hála az égnek,
voksa nincs?
– Valóban kiváncsi volnék, – mondá éles hangon, szemét az ifjú
ügyészre függesztve, Macskaházy – a teins úr mily módon fogja
bebizonyítani részrehajlásunkat.
– E kiváncsiságot kielégíthetem, – válaszolt, haragja mellett is
legalább külsőleg nyugodtabban, a megszólított. – Mi önt illeti,
miután azon egy módot, melylyel magát a rab által emelt vádtól
tökéletesen igazolhatná, s mely nem más, mint ha a rab életben
marad, magának fentartani nem akarja: valószinűnek látszik, hogy a
vádnak a vádlóval egyszerre megsemmisítése érdekében fekszik. A
főbiró úrra nézve, mi a részrehajlást illeti, kétség nem lehet; Nyúzó
úr, birói székén, mint hóhér fogadta azt, kiről ítélnie kellene.
– Alávalóság! gazság! impertinentia! ki vele! actio! – kiáltatott
mindenfelől.
– Hol az ítéletre minden szavazatoknak egyenlősége kívántatik, –
szólt Völgyesy magasabbra emelve szavát, – s öt közül az egyikre
nézve valószínü, hogy a rabnak elítélése személyes érdekében
fekszik; a másik nyilván a törvényszék előtt kinyilatkoztatja, hogy
vele személyes ellenségeskedésben él: törvényes ítélet nem
mondathatik ki.
A lárma elnyomta az ügyész szavát.
– Én mindent el fogok követni, hogy ez égbe kiáltó vétket
mindenki által tudassam! – kiáltott a félbeszakasztott, majdnem
magán kívül haragjában; – legfelsőbb helyig megyek panaszommal,
hogy ez alávaló bánásmódnak érdemlett büntetést eszközöljek ki.
– Alávaló denuntians! Nem ismeri az 1805-iki törvényeket!
gyalázatos! – s más ehhez hasonló kiáltások, melyek között
leginkább a főbiró hangja vala kihallható, Völgyesyt meggyőzték,
hogy minden további szólás haszontalan; s már menni akart, midőn
Nyúzó felugorva gallérjához nyúlt: – Ki veled púpos hátú! – kiáltott
dühösen.
– Ezért számolni fogunk, – mondá Völgyesy kalapját feltéve, s
égő arczczal hagyá el a szobát.
A zaj, mely e vitatkozás alatt a szobában, hol a törvényszék
tartatott, támadt, az ajtó előtt állóknak figyelmét nem kis mértékben
vonta magára. A halk beszélgetések, melyeket a hajdúk s pandúrok
részint magok között, részint a tanukkal vagy a házhoz tartozó
cselédekkel folytattak, elhallgattak, s minden fül az ajtó felé fordult,
honnan mindig nevekedő lárma hallatszott, s azokra nézve legalább,
kik e hallgatók közül, mint sokan, talán azt hivék, hogy gorombaság
s igazság többnyire együtt jár, azon megnyugtatás terjedhetett el,
hogy soha igazságosabb birák törvényszéken együtt nem ültek.
Liptákné, úgy látszott, más nézetben volt; ő az ajtóhoz közel ülvén,
minden egyes szót meghalla, s nem egyszer mondá sóhajtva a
mellette álló kovácshoz: – Ej, az urak nagyon haragszanak
egymásra; szegény Viola, hogy épen ilyenkor kellett kezeik közé
kerülnie! – A többiek vegyületlen gyönyörüségekkel hallgaták a zajt,
mely által az ítélőszék sajászerüleg nyilvánossá vált. Tudva van,
hogy a nyilvánosságnál polgári szabadságunknak jobb biztosítéka
nincs; valamint a legerősebb méreg – a kéksavany – elveszti erejét,
ha a nap sugarainak kitétetik: úgy alig van valami annyira veszélyes,
mi, ha teljes világosságban áll, ártatlanná nem válnék; azonban nem
hiszem, hogy a magyar demosnak azon tagjai, kiket a tisztartói lak
folyosóján összegyülve találunk, erre e pillanatban gondoltak volna,
s a gyönyörűség, mely minden arczon e nyerseségek hallásánál
elterjedt, alkalmasint csak azon kellemes érzésben veheté eredetét,
mely mindenikünket eltölt, ha azt, mit régen szivén hord, más valaki
által kimondva hallhatja.
Csak Viola nem osztozott, mint látszott, az általános
érdeklődésben. A folyosó kartámaszához dőlve állt őrei között
elmerülve egy tárgynak látásában, melyen szemei mozdulatlanul
függtek. A kapu mellett neje, egyik gyermekével karján, s mellette kis
fia állt és a zsivány előtt eltünt minden egyéb.
A szegény asszony, mihelyt a törvényszék kezdetét vevé, ide a
kapuhoz jött s bemenetelt kért; s miután az őrök e kérését
megtagadták, megfeledkezve a dolog lehetetlenségéről, erőszakkal
akará kivinni szándékát. Mind hasztalan; a főbíró parancsa szerint a
pandúrok lökdösve taszíták vissza a tolakodót. Midőn a szegény
Zsuzsi minden erőlködésnek hasztalanságát látá, s noha
kéréseiben, könyörületből, a nézők egy része által pártoltatott, az
udvarba nem jöhetett, a vasvillákkal felállított parasztok egyike
mellett foglalt helyet. – Viola látta mindezt, látta a kegyetlen módot,
melylyel neje s gyermeke visszataszíttatott, látta a fájdalmat, mely e
kedves teremtés arczán elterült, az erőlködést, melylyel könyeit
elnyomá. Életét adta volna, ha oda mehet s kebléhez szorítva
kedvesét, a szivnek dobogását érezheti, melynek szeretetét az
egész világ el nem rabolhatja tőle, s itt kelle állnia pár lépésre s
mégis elválasztva tőle. Valami oly mondhatatlanul keserves vala e
két ember helyzetében, mi még a nem felette érzékeny őrökre is
fájdalmasan hatott, s közülök egynél több könyörületre fakadt, midőn
e két egymástól távol s mégis egymásban oly egészen elmerült
szerencsétlen teremtésre nézett.
Midőn a törvényszék szobájának ajtaja megnyilt s Völgyesy a
folyosóra lépett, Viola megfordult, gondolá, hogy ítéletének
meghallgatására hivatik, s vágyódott a pillanatra, mely után, mint az
őröktől hallá, nejével együtt lehet. – Vége van? – kérdezé a kijövőt.
– Még nincs, – mondá emez halkabban.
– S a teins ur elmegy?
– Nincs szavazatom, – felelt az ügyész sóhajtva – nem lehetek
semmi hasznára.
– Tudtam, – mondá Viola s arczán keserű mosolygás lejte át. –
Isten áldja meg azért, hogy szegény ember létemre annyit fáradott
értem; de ha könyörülni akar rajtam, kérem, csak azt vigye ki, hogy
szegény feleségemet ide ereszszék. Ott áll a kapu mellett a
nyomorult, gyermekeivel, körüllökdösik s nem eresztik hozzám.
Ezeknek az embereknek nincsen szivök. Csak itt mellettem
lehessen, mást nem kívánok; hisz kötözve s pandúroktól körülfogva
vagyok, egy pár óra mulva halál fia, mit árthat a teins vármegyének,
ha egy szegény asszonynak szive valamivel kevesebbet fáj?
– Meg lesz kívánata, – válaszolt Völgyesy mélyen meghatva, s
miután a kapunál Viola nejét s gyermekeit maga ereszté az udvarba,
gondolatokba merülve elment.
A jelenetet, melynek a folyosón állók most tanui voltak, midőn a
szerencsétlen nő gyermekeivel lelánczolt férjéhez jött, nem fogom
leirni. A szerencsétlenek nem szóltak, de midőn a zsiványnak kis fia
sírva apjának a kötelektől feltört egyik kezét csókolá, s a nő
reszketve megszorítá a másikat, s a rab halvány arczain nehéz
könyek peregtek le: a nézők között alig maradt egy szem szárazon.
Benn a szobában a táblabirák nemes indignatiója azalatt
lecsillapult. Macskaházy az irásokat átvéve, ezeknek rendezésével
foglalkozott. Nyúzó, fogai között dörmögve, szidá Völgyesy
szemtelenségét; a többiek közönyös tárgyakról suttogtak egymás
között, elég jó kedvüen, Kislakyt kivéve, kinek nyugtalansága, mióta
az alügyész távozott, mindig szembetűnőbbé lőn.
Csak még a rab vallomásának aláirása kivántatott. Viola
behivatván, midőn vallomása előtte felolvastatott, megjegyzé, hogy
benne mindazokról, melyeket ma Tengelyi irásairól a törvényszék
elébe terjesztett, semmi sem foglaltatik; miután azonban
Macskaházy mondá, hogy csak az a kérdés: vajon e vallomásban
foglaltakat valóknak állítja-e? s hogy minden egyebet, a mit mondott
s a mi nem e tárgyhoz tartozik, a törvényszék külön fogja feljegyezni,
nehézség nélkül irta oda nevét.
A szerencsétlenek nem szóltak.