Conducting Marketing Research: Tutored By: Prof. Sunil D’ Anto

Conducting Marketing Research

Tutored by : Prof. Sunil D’ Anto

Learning Agenda

• What constitutes good marketing research? • What are good metrics for measuring marketing productivity? • How can marketers assess their return on investment of marketing expenditures?

ITC Used Extensive Market Research before launching the Sunfeast range of biscuits

Marketing Research Marketing research is the systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data and findings relevant to a specific marketing situation facing the company.

The Scope of marketing research Marketing research is the function that links the consumer, customer, 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. ~ American Marketing Association

The Marketing Research Process

Step 1: Define the Problem

Step 1: Define the Problem • Specify the management decision alternatives • State research objectives • Define the problem • Some research is exploratory—its goal is to shed light on the real nature of the problem and to suggest possible solutions or new ideas. • Some research is descriptive—it seeks to ascertain certain magnitudes. • Some research is causal—its purpose is to test a cause-and-effect relationship.

Step 2: Develop the Research Plan Data Sources (primary, secondary)

Research ** Instruments

Research * Approach

Sampling Plan Contact Methods

* Research Approaches Observation

Ethnographic (use of anthropology & social science concepts & tools)

Focus Group * Survey

Behavioral Data Experimentation (to capture cause-effect relationship)

* Focus Group in Session

** Research Instruments

Questionnaires Qualitative Measures Technological Devices

A. 1.Question Types—Dichotomous In arranging this trip, did you contact American Airlines?  Yes  No

A.2. Question Types—Multiple Choice With whom are you traveling on this trip?  No one  Spouse

 Spouse and children  Children only

 Business associates/friends/relatives  An organized tour group

A.3. Question Types—Likert Scale (agreement/disagreement)

Indicate your level of agreement with the following statement: Small airlines generally give better service than large ones.  Strongly disagree

 Disagree  Neither agree nor disagree

 Agree  Strongly agree

A.4. Question Types—Semantic Differential American Airlines Large ………………………………...…….Small Experienced………………….….Inexperienced Modern……………………….…..Old-fashioned

A.5. Question Types—Importance Scale Airline food service is _____ to me.  Extremely important  Very important

 Somewhat important  Not very important  Not at all important

A.6. Question Types—Rating Scale American Airlines’ food service is _____.  Excellent  Very good

 Good  Fair  Poor

A.7. Question Types— Intention to Buy Scale How likely are you to purchase tickets on American Airlines if in-flight Internet access were available?  Definitely buy

 Probably buy  Not sure  Probably not buy  Definitely not buy

Qualitative Measures * Word Association Projective Techniques

Visualization Brand Personification

Laddering

B.1. Question Types—Completely Unstructured What is your opinion of American Airlines?

B.2. Question Types—Word Association What is the first word that comes to your mind when you hear the following? Airline ________________________ American _____________________ Travel ________________________

B.3. Question Types— Sentence Completion When I choose an airline, the most important consideration in my decision is: __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ __________________________________________ ______________________________.

B.4. Question Types—Story Completion “I flew American a few days ago. I noticed that the exterior and interior of the plane had very bright colors. This aroused in me the following thoughts and feelings.” Now complete the story. ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ____________________________________________ ______________

B.5. Question Types—Picture (Empty Balloons)

B.6. Question Types— Thematic Apperception Test (TAT)

Make up a story that reflects what you think is happening in this picture.

Technological Devices Galvanometers (to measure aroused interest/emotion)

Tachistoscope (to measure cumulative responses )

Brain Wave scanners

Eye cameras

Skin Sensors

Audiometers

Full body scanners

GPS

OoH Media Marketers leverage GPS to Track Billboard Reach

Sampling Plan

• Sampling unit: Who is to be surveyed? • Sample size: How many people should be surveyed? • Sampling procedure*: How should the respondents be chosen?

Types of Samples Probability Samples • Simple random (equal chance)

• Stratified random (grouped & random sampled from each)

• Cluster (area) (grouped & one sample group picked)

Nonprobability Samples • Convenience (most accessible members)

• Judgment (qualified members) • Quota (prescribed members from each category)

Contact Methods Mail Questionnaire Telephone Interview Personal Interview Online Interview

Pros and Cons of Online Research Advantages • Inexpensive • Fast • Accuracy of data, even for sensitive questions • Versatility

Disadvantages • Small samples • Skewed samples • Technological problems • Inconsistencies

Step 6. Making the Decision : Marketing Decision Support System (MDSS) A marketing decision support system is a coordinated pool of data, systems, tools, and techniques with supporting hardware and software by which an organization gathers and interprets relevant information from business and environment and turns it into a basis for marketing action. Eg.: CALLPLAN system (model)that helps salespeople determine the number of calls(meetings/appointments) to make, per period, to each prospect and current clients.

Marketing Dashboard Marketing dashboards are a structured ways to disseminate the insights gleaned from the MIS within an organization. • A customer-performance scorecard records how well the company is doing year after year on customer-based measures. • A stakeholder-performance scorecard tracks the satisfaction of various constituencies who have a critical interest in and impact on the company’s performance including employees, suppliers, (investor)banks, distributors, retailers, and stockholders.

Sample Customer-Performance Scorecard Measures

• • • • • • •

% of new customers to average # % of lost customers to average # % of win-back customers to average # % of customers in various levels of satisfaction % of customers who would repurchase % of target market members with brand recall % of customers who say brand is most preferred

Sample of a Marketing Dashboard