ENTMARK CH1.

Concept and Product Research

• Brands conduct research to detect changes in consumer attitudes and brand perceptions.
• Key questions addressed: product performance for customers and opportunities for improvement.
• Perceptual mapping visually represents consumer perceptions and influences purchasing decisions.

Marketing Mix Variables

Place/Distribution

• Retail market research includes trade area analysis, store image studies, and traffic patterns.
• Online retailers utilize behavioral targeting to create relevant advertisements based on user data.
• Shopper marketing aims to understand customer purchase journeys and informs product management and marketing strategies.

Promotion

• Companies must maximize promotional budget returns through effective metrics.
• Key research tasks include advertising effectiveness studies, attitudinal research, and sales tracking.

Price

• Pricing research determines market demand, sales forecasts, and sensitivity to price changes.
• Identifies market segments with varying price sensitivities and opportunities for differentiated pricing.

Consumers and Markets

• Successful marketing is tied to clear target market demographics, attitudes, and lifestyles.
• Ethnography involves observing consumers in their environments to gather insights for segmentation.
• Benefits and lifestyle studies provide valuable data for developing customer profiles.

Marketing Theory

• Adoption and diffusion theory explains how new products are embraced by consumers.
• Services marketing research emphasizes reliability, empathy, responsiveness, assurance, and tangibility.
• Information overload theory suggests consumers prefer simpler choices, affecting purchasing behavior.

Marketing Research Industry Growth

• Significant growth driven by post-sale satisfaction studies and retail product scanning systems.
• Database development and international research studies contribute to revenue in this sector.

Types of Marketing Research Firms

• Research firms can be internal or external, custom or standardized.
• Customized firms offer tailored research solutions, while standardized firms provide broader findings.
• Syndicated business services, such as AC Nielsen, track retail sales for multiple brand products.

Evolving Skills in Marketing Research

• Expanding firms require a diverse skill set to meet industry demands.
• Key skills include data interpretation, effective communication, negotiation, and proficiency in statistical analysis and information technology.

Ethical Considerations

• Address pricing issues and avoid employing "soft" costs to inflate project budgets.
• Maintain client confidentiality and be cautious with proprietary methodologies.
• Ensure research meets professional standards to avoid unethical outcomes like data falsification.

Abuse of Respondents

• Ethical guidelines prohibit misleading incentives and the misrepresentation of survey completion times.
• Researchers must de-identify data and respect respondent privacy, especially in online research contexts.

Client Ethical Responsibilities

• Avoid requesting research proposals with no intention of hiring the firm.
• Clients should uphold honesty in project results and respect the integrity of research firms.

Respondent Ethical Issues

• Dishonesty in responses, particularly regarding sensitive information, undermines research validity.
• Respondents may distort answers to fit expected profiles in studies.

Marketing Research Codes of Ethics

• Researchers must comply with laws and ethical guidelines, particularly when engaging with vulnerable groups like children.
• Protect the rights of respondents and ensure project integrity through accuracy and transparency.

Emerging Trends in Marketing Research

• Increased focus on secondary data collection and technology-driven data management.
• Growth in digital methods for data acquisition and an expanding international client base.
• Shift from data analysis to comprehensive data interpretation and information management approaches.

This quiz examines the critical aspects of brand research and positioning strategies. It focuses on how established brands conduct concept and product testing to understand consumer perceptions and improve their offerings. Dive into the nuances of perceptual mapping and brand attitudes.