10 Marketing Principles for Gathering & Using Marketing Information PDF

MARK-2010 CHAPTER 10 PRINCIPLES OF GATHERING AND USING MARKETING INFORMATION: CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY MARKETING RESEARCH AND COLLEGE MARKET INTELLIGENCE Marketing research, market research and market intelligence Marketing research…the process of collecting,...

MARK-2010 CHAPTER 10 PRINCIPLES OF GATHERING AND USING MARKETING INFORMATION: CUYAHOGA COMMUNITY MARKETING RESEARCH AND COLLEGE MARKET INTELLIGENCE Marketing research, market research and market intelligence Marketing research…the process of collecting, analyzing, and reporting marketing information that can be used to answer questions or solve problems. Market research: a subset of marketing research which analyzes a specific market to determine its size and trends Market intelligence: Often referred to as competitive intelligence, this type of research gathers information on a regular, ongoing basis to Marketing research answers your questions! Developing product ideas and designs Determining if there is demand for your product so you know whether or not to produce it Identifying market segments for your product Making pricing decisions Evaluating packaging types Evaluating in-store promotions Measuring the satisfaction of your customers Measuring the satisfaction of your channel partners Evaluating the effectiveness of your Web site Testing the effectiveness of ads and their placement Making marketing channel decisions Marketing Information Systems A marketing information system (MIS) is a way to manage the vast amount of information firms have on hand—information marketing managers need to make good decisions. A marketing information system should include the following components: A system for recording internally generated data and reports A system for collecting market intelligence on an ongoing basis Marketing analytics software to help managers with their decision making A system for recording marketing research information Internally Generated Data and Reports Organizations generate and record information as part of daily business. This results in useful internally generated data! operations, including sales and accounting data, data on inventory levels, back orders, returns, and complaints. Clickstream data is data generated about the number of people who visit a Web site. It is used to: monitor the overall traffic of visitors of a site see which areas of the site people aren’t visiting and explore why automatically offer visitors products and promotions by virtue of their browsing patterns Data is made available to employees via an intranet Data mining uses analytics software to filter data and retrieve relevant pieces to answer specific questions. Combining data into one location is called data warehousing.  Market intelligence What is the business COLLECTING MARKET INTELLIGENCE DATA environment Helps companies anticipate changes like? in Helps generate ideas or product Are credit-lending terms loose or the market and competitive environment concepts tight, andMARKET GATHERING how will they INTELLIGENCE INVOLVES Aaffect AS: what NUMBER OF ACTIVITIES SUCH Studying economic data produced you and your Scanning newspapers and reports. by the government. customers are able to buy or not buy? SEARCH ENGINES AND CORPORATE WEB SITES Competitor’s How will Web sites arerising a good place fuel prices analysis—and Monitor social networks via sentiment to gain market intelligence. Facebook and Twitter. alternate energy sources affect your firm and your products? Sources of Market Intelligence Publications: The Economist, The Wall Street Journal, Forbes, Fortune, Business Week, The McKinsey Report, Sales and Marketing Management, and The Financial Times. Corporate Websites Trade Shows and Associations: Trade shows are another way companies learn about what their competitors are doing. Salespeople: A vital source of market intelligence are a company’s salespeople. Suppliers and Industry Experts: Suppliers can provide a wealth of information. Customers: How customers are behaving can provide important clues. Industrial Espionage Unethical or illegal research practices The marketing research process Primary Market Research: Puppy Taste Test Define the problem or Opportunity Take a look at symptoms and try to drill down to the potential causes. Look at all potential causes so as to narrow the parameters of the study to the information you actually need to make a good decision Identify your research objective! What are the goals your research is supposed to accomplish?  Design the research Research design: outlines what data is to be gathered; from whom, how, and when to collect the data; and how to analyze it once it’s been obtained. Data sources: Primary data: research data that you generate yourself! It is observed and recorded directly from subjects. Secondary data: research that has been compiled elsewhere… either within your firm or via government statistics, competitive websites, you name it! How to know what it is you want to know! Research first begins with a guesstimate of the circumstances you’re researching. It’s called a hypothesis. An informed guess or assumption about a certain problem or set of circumstances Reliability and Validity A research technique has reliability if it produced almost identical results in repeated trials. A research technique has validity if the method measures what it’s supposed to, instead of something else! Sources of Secondary Data hl Internal External Sales records Periodicals Government publications Research Reports Trade publications Accounting and On-line databases Business publications Finance Syndicated research data that marketing research firms collect on a regular basis and sell to other companies. Secondary Data won’t Scanner-based research automatically information collected by scanners at correspond to your checkout stands in stores. formats! A marketing research And it may not always aggregator marketing research company that be completely accurate. doesn’t conduct its own research and sell it. Collecting Primary Data Is lengthy, expensive and complicated! (But it gives you great data!) Because the data is customized specifically to your situation, it speaks directly to your question. It can be gathered using: Sampling Observation Surveying Experimentation Sampling When you choose a limited number of ‘units’ to interview or research, you are sampling a representative group of your total population (all the elements of interest to you for a specific study). When you sample, you select a limited number of representatives from a total population that you research A sampletoispredict buying a subset behavior…or of potential buyersany that are behavior! representative of the entire Population target market. A sampling error is any type of marketing research mistake that results because a sample was And Key Types of Sampling In Probability Sampling, every element in your population has a chance of being selected for study. The most often used is… Random Sampling - all the units of a population have an equal chance of being ‘selected.’ In Non-Probability Sampling, there is no way to calculate the likelihood that a specific element of the population will be chosen. Certain characteristics are selected, but not everyone has the same chance of being researched.  Survey Methods To 22 Another key element of data collection Includes: mail surveys phone surveys online surveys personal interview surveys in home focus group mall intercepts computer interviews  Mail Surveys Questionnaires are sent to respondents who are encouraged to complete and return them. Used when individuals are widespread and limited funds are available Aside from electronic survey distribution, this is the least expensive alternative as long as the response rate is high. Premiums can be provided to reward respondent panels who are interviewed regularly by mail.  Phone Surveys Advantages: High response rates Quickly conducted Rapport development and probing Disadvantages: Most folks aren’t amenable! Limited to oral communication (Picture if you will….) Households are not all included in On Line Surveys Questionnaires are transmitted to respondents who have agreed to be interviewed and supplied their E-Mail address. Advantages: Semi-Interactive - respondents can ask questions, researchers can probe quick response lower cost Disadvantages: Limited access to subjects Unproven response rates  Personal Interview Surveys Subjects respond to questions face to face. You can incorporate audiovisual aids! And gain rapport, which permits in-depth interviewing. And the four types include: In-home interviews Focus group interviews Telephone in-depth interviews Mall Intercepts On-site computer interviews  In-Home Interviews Group influences are eliminated, and in an in-depth interview of forty five to ninety minutes, respondents ca be probed to reveal their real motivations, feelings and behaviors. Focus Group Interviews Gathering 8 or so folks together in a conference room behind a one way mirror and asking them subjective questions about a product or concept. Researchers can ask probing questions to clarify a comment or situation. Telephone In-Depth Interviews Combines focus group advantages, including probing, with confidentiality of phone surveys. Mall Intercept Interviews You’ve all had this happen to you… you’re innocently reviewing your latest smart phone purchase at the mall when someone lurking in the corner sprints after you and says, “May I have just a few minutes of your time to answer some questions?” On-Site Computer Interviews Like a mall intercept…but different! Designing Your To 16 Questionnaire/Data Collection Form Questions must be easy to understand They must be designed to elicit info you really need (separating musts from nice to haves) Must be impartial! Types of questions:  Open ended  Multiple choice  Dichotomous  Semantic Differential Dichotomous Questions Dichotomous is generally a "Yes/No" question. It's often a screening question to filter those who don't fit the needs of the research. It can provide an easy-to-understand overview of your marketing situation. Dichotomous question example: Dichotomous questions can also separate respondents by a specific value. For example, this might be those who "have purchased" and those who "are yet to purchase" your products. Multiple choice The multiple-choice survey questions consist of three or more exhaustive, mutually exclusive categories. In the following survey questions example, the user selects only one out of the seven provided. Multiple choice survey question example: Semantic differential scale The Semantic Differential Scale question asks a person to rate a product, brand, or company on a rating scale. The ends of the scale feature polar-opposite adjectives, for example "Very unlikely" to "Very likely". A typical example is asking customers to rate their willingness to purchase the product again. Semantic differential scale survey example: You’ll often see this type of question formatted in terms of agreement: strongly disagree, disagree, agree, strongly agree.  Open-ended The open ended survey question explores qualitative, in-depth aspects of a particular topic or issue. It gives the person a chance to respond in detail. Open questions provide a direct look into a person's thoughts. Open-ended survey question examples: What goals would you like to accomplish? What challenges are you facing at this moment? Where do you turn for inspiration? Why did you choose us over our competitors? Designing data-collection forms How the questions are worded is extremely important. Questions must be written in an unbiased neutral way. The questions need to be clear and unambiguous. Sensitive questions have to be asked carefully. Income questions are unwelcome but often asked. Double-barreled questions ask two questions in one: “Do you think parents should spend more time with their children and/or their teachers?” Open-ended questions ask respondents to Testing the questionnaire If the questions are bad, information gathered will be bad. Getting people to complete questionnaires can be difficult; incentives can help. Testing the questionnaires face-to-face on a limited number of respondents before sending improves responses. Long surveys are less likely to be completed. Eliminate questions of little value. Surveys can be delivered via phone, in person, by mail, and computer. Types of Research Design Exploratory Research - is conducted to gather more info about a problem or to make a tentative hypothesis more specific. Initial investigation of a problem. Less structured. Descriptive Research - is conducted to clarify the characteristics of a situation, and to develop specific strategies to address or exploit them! This type of research provides you insight into the buying habits of your customers… how many consumers in the Cleveland area have a glass of wine when dining out, for example. Causal Research - answers the question, “If I increase thus and so, will thus and so decrease as a result?” For example, if I explain what wines go well with what meals, will more customers buy wine with dinner? Importantly, in causal research, it is critical that all other variables that might affect ‘Y’ be left unaffected. So, if you tested a white zinfandel, but also lowered all the prices on your wine list, you wouldn’t know which variable succeeded.  Observation Methods Researchers record subjects’ overt behavior, taking note of physical conditions and events Data gathered can sometimes be biased if your subject knows what you’re up to! Observation is straightforward, and avoids the challenge of motivating subjects to state their true opinions Does not usually provide insight into causal relationships HL  Experimentation When researchers try to maintain certain variables while measuring the effects of experimental variables. An independent variable is manipulated, and changes in the dependent variable noted.  International Marketing Research Data Gathering marketing research data in foreign countries poses special challenges. Face-to-face surveys are commonly used in third-world countries to collect information from people who cannot read or lack phones and computers. Translating surveys is an issue. Back translation is used to determine if anything is lost in translations. Interpreting Research Findings Statistical interpretation focuses on what is typical or deviant from the average. If the results of a study are valid, the decision maker takes action. If an ‘oops’ occurs, research may be reinitiated. For example, ‘50% of all respondents say their flight attendant was ‘friendly.’’ But what does that really mean?  Reporting Research Findings What does the research say? What are its deficiencies? You will need to determine beforehand how much supporting detail your written report will include. Summaries and recommendations will often come first. Don’t ignore the research in favor of your bias! (Unless you are designing research for public consumption with a foregone conclusion in mind!) The End!