Professional Documents
Culture Documents
Research
Approaches
Research Approaches
Observational
Research
Ethnographic Research
Survey Research
Experimental
Research
Observational Research
Involves gathering primary data
by observing relevant people,
actions & situations
Can obtain info that people are
unwilling or unable to provide
Feelings, attitudes, private
behavior, & motives cant be
observed
Long-term or infrequent behavior
also difficult to observe
Example:
a bank evaluating new locations by
checking neighborhood locations &
the location of other banks
Ethnographic Research
Form of observational
research that involves
sending trained
observers to watch and
interact with consumers
in their natural habitat
Yields details that dont
emerge from tradition
research questionnaires
or focus groups
Survey Research
The most widely used
method for primary data
collection, is the approach
best suited for gathering
descriptive info
Major advantage is flexibility
Can be used to obtain
different kinds of info in many
different situations
Example:
Restaurants asking customers
about their service
Experimental Research
Gathering primary data by
selecting match groups of
subjects, giving them different
treatments, controlling related
factors, & checking for
differences in group responses
Tries to explain cause-andeffect relationships
Example:
Starbucks launching a new
beverage in 2 different cities at
2 different prices to determine
the best price to sell it at
Contact Methods
Mail
Telephone
Personal
Interviewing
Online
Marketing
Research
Mail
Mail questionnaires can be used
to collect large amounts of info at
a low-cost per respondent
Advantages
More honest answers to personal
questions
No interviewer involved to bias the
respondents answers
Disadvantages
Not very flexible
Take longer to complete
often very low response rate
Researcher has little control over the mail
questionnaire sample
Telephone
Telephone interviewing is one of
the best methods for gathering info
quickly
Advantages:
It provides greater flexibility than mail
questionnaires
Higher response rates
Interviewers can ask to speak to
respondents with the characteristics they
want or by name
Disadvantages:
The cost per respondent is higher
People may not want to discuss personal
questions with interviewer
Introduces interviewer bias
More hang-ups on telephone interviewer
Personal Interviewing
Personal interviewing takes
2 forms:
Individual: talks with people in
their homes, offices, on the
street, or shopping malls
Flexible
More costly than telephone
interviews (3 to 4 times more)
Quantitative research:
conducting marketing surveys
and collecting online data
Speed
Low costs
More interacting & engaging
Easier to complete
Less intrusive
Higher response rate
Disadvantages
Some forms prone to
interviewer effects
Sampling Plan
Sample: a segment of the
population selected for marketing
research to represent the
population as a whole
Designing the sample requires 3
decisions
1. Who is to be surveyed? (What
sampling unit?)
2. How many people should be
surveyed? (What sample size)
3. How should the people in the
sample be chosen? (What
sampling procedures)
Sampling Plan
Who is to be surveyed? (What sampling unit?)
Make sure you are interviewing the decision
maker
How many people should be surveyed? (What
sample size?)
Large samples (cost more) give more reliable
results than small samples
May be unnecessary to sample entire target
market to get reliable results
How should the people in the sample be chosen?
(What sampling procedure?)
Probability samples: costly (confidence limits
could be measured for sampling error)
Nonprobability samples (sampling error cant be
measured)
Examples:
People put electronic devices in
their TVs to record certain
programs
Checkout scanners record
shoppers purchases
Advertisers use eye cameras to
study viewers eye movements
while watching ads
Neuromarketing measures
brain activity to learn how
consumers feel and respond