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Chapter 6
Marketing Research and Decision Support Systems
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McGraw-Hill/Irwin
Copyright © 2004 by The McGraw-Hill Companies, Inc. All rights reserved.
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
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Understand the purpose and functions of
marketing research.
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Be familiar with the stages of the
marketing research process.
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Discuss different types of research
designs, data collection methods, and
sources of secondary and primary
marketing research data.
After studying this chapter, you should be able to:
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Understand many of the major issues
involved with survey design and sampling.
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Appreciate the role of marketing research
within decision support systems.
What is Marketing Research?
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Marketing Research:
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•
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Identifies and defines marketing
opportunities.
Generates, refines, and evaluates
marketing actions.
Monitors marketing performance.
Improves understanding of
marketing as a process.
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Marketing Research:
• Specifies the information required to address
these issues .
• Designs the methods for collecting information.
• Manages and implements the data collection
process.
• Analyzes the results.
• Communicates the findings and implications.
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Questions Marketing Research Can Help Answer
1.
2.
3.
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Planning
Problem Solving
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Produce
Price
Place
Promotion
Control
Marketing Research in the New Millennium
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Environmental Phenomena will affect the
marketing research industry in the next decade
and beyond.
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The traditional time line of 4 to 6 weeks for the
typical research project will not be acceptable.
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Marketing research is becoming a part of the
marketing strategy development process.
Marketing Research in the New Millennium
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Interactivity, e-commerce, and the Internet are
affecting the practice of marketing research.
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How will data be managed?
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Consolidation among companies has resulted in
market dominance by the top 25 firms.
The Marketing Research Process
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Problem Definition

Problem Definition:
• The first step in any marketing research
project and is critical to its success.
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All parties involved must:
• Focus on the real research problem, not the
symptoms.
• Anticipate how the information will be used.
• Avoid prescribing a specific study until the
problem is fully understood and defined.
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Research Designs
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Exploratory Research:
•
Typically carried out to satisfy the researcher’s desire for better
understanding, or to develop preliminary background and suggest
issues for a more detailed follow-up study.
Descriptive Research:
•
Normally directed by one or more formal research questions or
hypotheses.
• Cross-sectional study
• Longitudinal research
Casual Research:
•
Experiments in which researchers manipulate independent variables
and then observe or measure the dependent variable or variables of
interest.
Data Types
Primary Data
Secondary Date
SURVEYS
- Mail
- Telephone
INTERNAL DATA
- Company records
- Data from MDSS
INTERVIEWS
- Mall intercepts
- Personal interviews
EXTERNAL DATA
Proprietary
- Custom Research
- Syndicated services
Nonproprietary
- Published reports
- Census data
- Periodicals
FOCUS GROUPS
- Personal
- Mechanical
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Data Collection Methods
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Focus groups
Telephone surveys
Mail surveys
Personal interviews
Mall intercepts
Internet surveys
Projective techniques and
observations
Data Collection Instruments
 The collection of marketing
research information involves
construction of a data collection
instrument called survey or
questionnaire.
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Types of Survey Research Questions
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Scaled
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Likert agree-disagree
Semantic differential
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Multichotomous (multiple choice)
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Categorical
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Open-ended
Five Errors in Question Design
1.
2.
3.
4.
5.
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Double-barreled wording
Loaded wording
Ambiguous wording
Inappropriate vocabulary
Missing alternatives
Sample Design
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Sampling
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Probability Sampling
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Nonprobability Sampling
• Simple random sampling
• Stratified sampling
• Cluster sampling
Sampling
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Sampling Frame
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Sample Size
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Response Rate
•
A recent study by the Council for Marketing and
Opinion Research (CMOR) estimated that 45 percent
of consumers refused to participate in a survey in
2001.
Fieldwork
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Fieldwork is the process of:
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Contacting respondents
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Conducting interviews
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Completing surveys
Analysis and Interpretation
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Techniques for analyzing
marketing research data:
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Straightforward frequency
distributions
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Means
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Percentages
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Complex multivariate statistical tests
Changing Technology
Positive Factors:
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The availability of computer-assisted telephone (CAT)
interviewing has enhanced sampling, data entry, and data
processing.
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Videoconferencing enables clients to monitor focus groups and
provide the opportunity to involve more participants in
observation.
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Videoconferencing result in savings because clients do not have
to travel to locations to view focus group sessions.
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E-mail offers the potential for increasing survey efficiency.
Changing Technology
Negative Factors:
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Answering machines and voice-mail responses inhibit both
consumer and business-to-business telephone research.
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Call waiting hampers the conduct of telephone surveys.
International Considerations
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Selecting a domestic research
company to do international
research.
2.
Rigidly standardizing methods
across countries.
3.
Interviewing in English around
the world.
4.
Implementing inappropriate
sampling techniques.
International Considerations
5. Failing to communicate
effectively with local research
companies.
6. Lack of consideration given to
language.
7. Misinterpreting data across countries.
8. Failing to understand preferences of
foreign researchers regarding the
effective conduct of qualitative
research.
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Evaluating Marketing Research
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Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
Excessive interviewing
Lack of consideration
Abuse of respondents
Delivering sales pitches
under the guise of
marketing research
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Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
Incomplete reporting
of results
Misleading reporting
of results
Nonobjective research
Use of data and the
confidentiality of information
collected
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Marketing Decision Support Systems (MDSS)
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MDSS Are Designed to:
Support not supplant management
decision marketing.
Apply to semistructured decisions of
middle and upper management
(pricing, promotion, and location
decisions).
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MDSS Are Designed To:
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Provide interaction
between and among
people and systems.
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Center on a segment of
related decisions (the
allocation of marketing
effort and resources).
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Be user-friendly.
Database Marketing
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Database Marketing:
The collection and use of
individual customer-specific
information to make marketing
more efficient.
Database refers to
customer/prospect information
stored in a computer with
software to process the
information.
Database Marketing
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Customer Relationship Management
(CRM):
•
Relationship management from a transaction
orientation has been one of the significant
developments in the practice of marketing.
One important aspect of data-based marketing
is the ability to evaluate ROI of
marketing expenditures.
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Ethical Issues in Data Base Marketing
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1.
Marketers must continue to
work at self-regulation
regarding privacy protection.
2.
Firms that build their
databases from within, as
opposed to buying lists from
other sources, are able to
maintain the privacy of their
customers.
Ethical Issues in Data Base Marketing
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3.
Customer permission and
notification should be
regularly sought.
4.
Customers generally want
firms to reduce the volume
of catalog and advertising
mail while simultaneously
increasing the relevance of
that information.