Lecture 2

Lecture 2Marketing Research Process and Types of Marketing ResearchWhat do you think the marketing research process involves?

Marketing Research Process

Definition: A set of defined stages through which marketing information is collected.

Marketing Research Process Stages Marketing Research Process often follows a general pattern which includes 6 stages:

Marketing Research Process StagesAnalysis of each stage- Step 1: Defining the Research Objectives Research objectives set the purpose and focus of your research with the fundamental questions that will be addressed. Defining your research objectives means definingwhat do I need to investigate and how am I going to do it? Research objectives are the goals to be achieved by conducting research.Defining the Research Objectives Considerations for defining the research objectives:

Defining the managerial decision situation: meaning that careful attention to the problem definition allows the researcher to set the proper research objectives. The researcher needs to be part of planning and decision making in order to understand perfectly the problem concerning the research.

Defining the Research ObjectivesExploratory Research: It helps identify the decisions that need to be made. It can progressively narrow the scope of the research topic and help transform ambiguous problems into well-defined ones that yield specific research objectives. After such exploration the researcher should know exactly which data to collect during the formal phases of the project and how to conduct the project.Defining the Research ObjectivesExamples of exploratory research techniques: Secondary (historical) data, previous research, experience survey and case studies. Defining the Research ObjectivesPrevious Research: Researchers should first investigate previous research to see whether or not others may have addressed the same research problems previously.

Stating Research Objectives: After identifying and clarifying the problem, with or without exploratory research, the researcher must formally state the research objectives. The research objectives try to directly address the decision statement or statements, as the case may be. Defining the Research ObjectivesWhat is theory: Theory plays a role in determining the appropriate research objectives. A formal, logical explanation of some events that includes predictions of how things relate to one another.

What is a hypothesis: Hypothesis is a formal statement explaining some outcome. A hypothesis is a guess. Examples of research objectives for development of health warnings for tobacco packages Main objectives of the research:Review of the scientific knowledge on health labeling. An evaluation of existing warnings on tobacco packages. Review of the scientific evidence on the health effects of tobacco. Development of possible future warning messages.Examples on step 1Decision statement: Should we invest in a training program to reduce employee role conflict among our employees.

Research Objectives: Determine how much role conflict influences employee job satisfaction.

Hypotheses: Role conflict is related positively to job satisfaction.Step two: Planning the research design A research design is a master plan that specifies the methods and procedures for collecting and analyzing the needed information. It provides a framework or plan of action for the research. Selection of the basic research method: Survey (interview or questionnaire), experiment (laboratory or field), secondary data and observation.

Step two: Planning the research design (Selection of the basic research method)The appropriate method chosen depends on:Step two: Planning the research design (Selection of the basic research method)Survey: The most common method of generating primary data. It is a research technique in which a sample is interviewed in some form or the behavior of the respondents is observed and described in some way. Research investigators may choose to contact respondents by telephone or mail, on the internet or in person.Step two: Planning the research design (The Best research design) It is argued that there is no single best research design. The ability to select the most appropriate research design develops with experience. Inexperienced researchers often believe that a survey methodology is the best design but a different research method can offer the same results with a much lower cost. Step three: SamplingIf you take your first bite of a steak and conclude that the entire steak needs salt to taste good, you have just conducted a sample. Sampling involves any procedure that draws conclusions based in measurement of a portion of the population. In the steak analogy, the first bite is the sample and the entire steak is the population.Step three: SamplingIf certain statistical procedures are followed, the result of a good sample should have the same characteristics as the population as a whole. Of course, when errors are made, samples do not give reliable estimates of the population. Step three: SamplingQuestions to ask for the sample:Who is to be sampled? The answer to this is the target population.How big should the sample be? Even though a larger sample is more precise than a small one, a proper sample even small one, can give a reliable measure of the whole.How to select the sampling units. Simple random sampling may be the best known type.Step four: Gathering data Data gathering is the process of gathering of collecting information. Surveys require direct participation by research respondents by filling questionnaires or interacting with an interviewer. These are obtrusive methods. Unobtrusive methods are methods in which research respondents do not have to be disturbed for data to be gathered (like observing).Step five: Processing and Analyzing dataAfter the fieldwork has been completed, the data must be converted into a format that will answer the marketing managers question. This is part of the data processing and analyzing stage. This stage begins with editing and coding the data. Editing involves checking the data collection forms for mistakes, legibility etc. The editing process corrects problems before the data are transferred to the computer. Step five: Processing and Analyzing dataCoding means interpreting, categorizing, recording and transferring the data to the data storage media. The last part of step five is data analysis which is the application of reasoning to understand the data that have been gathered. In its simplest form, analysis may involve determining consistent patterns and summarizing the relevant details revealed in the investigation. Step six: Drawing conclusions and preparing a report This is the final stage of the research process, but it is far from the least important. This stage consists of interpreting the research results, describing the implications, and drawing the appropriate conclusions for managerial decisions. These conclusions should fulfill the deliverables promised in the research proposal. Its also important that the researcher consider the varying abilities of people to understand the research results. Types of Marketing ResearchAd-hoc Market Research

Ad-hoc research studies focus on specificMarketing problems. They collect data at onepoint in time from one sample of respondents.

Good examples of ad-hoc studiesinclude: Product usage survey New product concept tests (where consumers are asked to trial new brands, product prototypes etc)Types of Marketing ResearchAdvertising development (how does the sample of consumers respond to a specific advertising campaign?Most TV adverts are researched in this way) Corporate image surveys (often quite enlightening) Customer satisfaction surveys (these can often turn into continuous research)

Types of Marketing ResearchContinuous ResearchContinuous studies interview the samesample of people, repeatedly. The majortypes of continuous research are:

Consumer panelsConsumer panels are formed byrecruiting large numbers of householdswho provide information on their buyingover time.

Types of Marketing ResearchRetail AuditsBy gaining the cooperation of retail outlets, sales of brands can be measured (using bar coded sales data) to track changes in brand loyalty, market share and effectiveness of different retail formats.Television Viewership / Radio Listening PanelsThese panels aim to measure Viewer ship or listening minute by minute.