Marketing

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)

Group: consists of inviting 6 to 10

people to meet with a trained
moderator to talk about a
product, service, or organization
Focus group interviewing
Hard to generalize from results

Online Marketing Research

Online marketing research:
collecting primary data online
through Internet surveys, online
focus groups, Web-based
experiments, or tracking
consumers online behavior
Online research can take many
forms:
Web surveys
Web experiments

Quantitative research:
conducting marketing surveys
and collecting online data

Online Marketing Research

Advantages:

Speed
Low costs
More interacting & engaging
Easier to complete
Less intrusive
Higher response rate

Disadvantages
Some forms prone to
interviewer effects

Online Focus Groups

Gathering a small group of people online
with a trained moderator to chat about a
product, service, or organization and gain
qualitative insights about consumer
attitudes and behavior
Chat room discussions
Online message boards
Advantages
Can bring a wider range of people
together faster
Eliminates travel, lodging, & facility
costs
Disadvantages
Lack real world dynamics of personal

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)

Research Instruments Questionnaire

By person, phone or Online
Closed End Question - include all
the possible answers; subjects make
choices among them
Ex: multiple choice or scale questions
Easier to interpret

Open End Question - allow

respondents to answer in their own
words
Reveal more than close-ended questions
(respondents aren't limited to answers)
1st question should create interest
Last question could be difficult or
personal

Research Instruments Mechanical Devices

Monitors consumers behavior

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

Implementing The Research

Plan
Researcher puts the research plan into
action
Involves collecting, processing, &
analyzing the info
1. Watch closely to make sure plan is
followed correctly
2. Process & analyze the data to
isolate important info & findings
3. Check data for accuracy and
completeness
4. Compile results & compute
statistical measures
Data collection:
Can be carried out by marketing
research staff or outside firms
Disadvantages:
. Collection phase is expensive
. Usually has errors

Interpreting & Reporting The Findings

Steps the researcher must do:
1. Interpret the findings
2. Draw conclusions
3. Report them to management

. Present important findings & insights

(useful in important decisions made by
management)
Interpretation not left only to researchers
. Managers know more about the problems and
decisions that must be made
. But managers may be biased
Managers & researchers must work together
closely when interpreting research results
. Both must share responsibility for the research
process & resulting decisions