Download IME511S_Marketing Research extended

NOTES – SOURCES
STEVEN DENK AND
VICTOR SOMOSU
PLEASE DO NOT COPY OR
REPRODUCED WITHOUT
THEIR PERMISSION
MARKETING RESEARCH
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NATURE AND SCOPE OF MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM
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DEF: A system, consisting of people, equipment and procedures, that
gather, sort, analyze, evaluate and distribute needed, timely and
accurate information to marketing decision makers.
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MIS – are built around the needs of managers, and should be
designed to supply up to date information in a timely manner.
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The need for real time information is greater than at any time in the
past thus every firm must organize a rich flow of information to meet
the information needs of their marketing managers and design
systems to meet these needs
DATABASE MARKETING
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A form of direct marketing using databases of
customers or potential customers to generate a
personalized communications in order to promote a
product or service for marketing purposes
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The emphasis is on gathering all available customer
leads, prospects into a central database and using
statistical techniques to develop models of customer
behavior.
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The data obtained from these types of software is
used to target the customers for specific
products/services
Data warehouses have thus become profitable
Lists of customers could be purchased at huge costs
Companies are protecting their databases with
passwords, screening, audit trails, etc
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The databases usually consist of
names, addresses, list of hobbies, salary,
transactions history, default, payments made,
etc
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Information could be obtained from internet,
credit card application forms, charity
donations, etc
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COMPONENTS OF A MARKETING INFORMATION SYSTEM (MIS)
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INTERNAL CONTINUOUS DATA
INTERNAL AD HOC DATA
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
MARKETING RESEARCH
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INTERNAL CONTINUOUS DATA
Could be sales records, customer records, profitability ratio’s, customer
surveys, typical management records, employee records, amongst other
The information is stand alone and every department collects information as
they see fit – there is not coherent grouping or summary of records for
management purposes
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INTERNAL AD HOC DATA
Data collected on an occasional basis usually for a specific purpose
e.g. collect data on employee performance during a specific campaign.
ENVIRONMENTAL SCANNING
The scanning, analysis and supply of information about developments
in the marketing environment.
Information could be obtained from trade journals, publications,
networking, internet, etc
Market conditions – threats and opportunities.
MARKETING RESEARCH
Final element of MIS systems
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Usually applied when specific answers are sought for specific
problems
This stage fills any gaps in a MIS
First stage – collecting data
Raw data must be analyzed and interpreted to become information
In conclusion – any good MIS system will produce workable and
usable reports
These reports will allow managers to keep ahead of competition by
designing the correct marketing programs
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DEFINITION OF MARKETING RESEARCH
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THE SYSTEMATIC GATHERING, RECORDING,
AND ANALYSIS OF DATA ABOUT PROBLEMS
AND OPPORTUNITIES RELATING TO THE
MARKETING OF PRODUCTS, FOR THE SAKE OF
MARKETING DECISION MAKING.
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AMA – AMERICA MARKETING ASSOCIATION:
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THE FUNCTION WHICH LINKS THE CONSUMER, CUSTOMER AND PUBLIC
TO THE MARKETER THROUGH INFORMATION – INFORMATION USED TO
IDENTIFY AND DEFINE MARKETING OPPORTUNITIES AND PROBLEMS,
GENERATE, REFINE, EVALUATE MARKETING ACTION. MARKETING
RESEARCH SPECIFIES THE INFORMATION REQUIRED TO ADDRESS
THESE ISSUES; DESIGNS THE METHOD FOR COLLECTING
INFORMATION; MANAGES AND IMPLEMENTS THE DATA COLLECTION
PROCESS; ANALYZE THE RESULTS; AND COMMUNICATES THE
FINDINGS AND THEIR IMPLICATIONS
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MARKETING RESEARCH THEREFORE:
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Looks beyond the current market conditions and
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Into the future
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Review monitoring systems for marketing plans and programs
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Identifies opportunities and threats
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Identifies what information is needed at what time
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Takes account of past experiences and future expectations
SCOPE OF MARKETING RESEARCH
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Customer research
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Advertising research
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Product research
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Distribution research
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Sales research
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Marketing environment research
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CUSTOMER RESEARCH
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Concerned with the behavior and motivations of customers
Their geographical or demographical spread
Their numbers and spending power
Provides information on markets and their segments, size and trends
Information on brand share, positioning, etc
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Research done in Namibia indicates that we look to each other and
community role models for advice and guidance.
Word of mouth is a powerful influence within Namibia
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ADVERTISING RESEARCH
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This relates to the success of advertising campaigns or any other
promotional activity undertaken by the company.
Provides information on the most appropriate media, design and
advertising to use for their marketing programs.
It is important to understand the impact of campaigns in the market
especially in view of all the huge advertising spend incurred by
companies.
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E.g.. you could count the numbers of competition entries versus your
database of customers
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PRODUCT RESEARCH
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This involves the testing of new products and ideas
on potential customers.
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Could be used to assess the popularity, strengths
and weaknesses of a product’s performance in the
market versus the competition’s portfolio.
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DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH
Assess the strengths and weaknesses of
potential distributors
Testing of their facilities, location for the
benefit of your product
Test their popularity in the region, their
relationships with customers.
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SALES RESEARCH
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Determine the effectiveness of individual sales persons, sales
techniques, etc
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Determine the effectiveness of sales management teams
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Can even be used to determine market related salaries,
benefits, etc
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Appropriate training methods,
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MARKETING ENVIRONMENT RESEARCH
Political factors
Legal factors
Economic factors
Social factors
Technological factors affecting your
marketing activities
IMPORTANCE OF MARKETING
RESEARCH
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IMPROVE THE QUALITY OF MARKETING DECISIONS:
Marketers can take appropriate decisions which would be
beneficial to the company e.g. in the event of testing of new
products in the market, or determining the PLC of existing
products
TRACING PROBLEMS
E.g.. declining sales, market share,
Strength of the competitions and their preferred status
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UNDERSTANDING THE MARKET PLACE
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E.g. when wanting to determine the market
size, market segment, market growth rate,
competition, consumer habits, etc.
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Research could be:
Intuitive or scientific
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INTUITIVE
Personal knowledge and experience –
feelings, perceptions, etc
SCIENTIFIC
Orderly, logical approach to gathering
information
MARKETING RESEARCH PROCESS
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Defining the research problem (opportunity)
Analyze the situation
Determining research objectives
Deciding on suitable research design (research
plan)
Field work (gathering problem specific data)
Data processing and analysis
Report preparation
Follow-up
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DEFINING THE RESEARCH PROBLEM
(OPPORTUNITY)
Find out what the problem is
Define the problem allow you to focus your efforts
more precisely, avoiding wasting time and resources
This is very important as the wrong problem
definition could lead you down the wrong path…
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ANALYZE THE SITUATION
Gathers background information about a problem
The how, when, where, who, what, why questions
are important
What are our objectives, when must we complete the
research, why are we doing this, who should be
involved, etc
Proper questions lead to proper analysis of the
problem/situation/opportunity
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DETERMINE RESEARCH OBJECTIVES
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The objectives must be clearly defined
to ensure that the research carried out
remain focused – i.e. does not deviate
from what is stated in the first step.
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DECIDING ON SUITABLE RESEARCH
DESIGN (RESEARCH PLAN)
The outline of the design, execution and
monitoring of a research study,
The plan contains a statement of the
company’s problem and the proposed means
of collecting information to help solve it.
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Which research questions to ask –
questionnaire
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Where the data will be gathered from – data
sources
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When the data will be gathered –
dates/timing
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How the data will be gathered – personal
visits, post, telephone
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How the data will be analyzed – manually,
computerized
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How much the research will cost - research
budget
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FIELDWORK (GATHERING PROBLEM
SPECIFIC DATA)
Involves the implementation of the research
design
That is obtaining the information needed to
solve the problem at hand.
Usually the most expensive part of any
research project
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DATA PROCESSING AND ANALYSIS
Analysis is concerned with arranging
information in such a way that it acquires
meaning to the user
Interpretation is concerned with extracting
useable recommendations from the data
Thus data analysis results in meaningful
interpretations of all the raw data
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REPORT PREPARATION
At this stage the researcher prepares/creates
the report of the findings.
The recommendations and conclusions are
the most important part of this report.
The report has the following headings – not
in chronological order:
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Background to the research
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Rationale of the research
The manner in which the research was conducted
and the rationale decided upon
Outcomes in terms of responses
Results and interpretation of results
Conclusions and recommendations –which
should include an action plan
Limitations of the study
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FOLLOW UP
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It is important to obtain the management’s
decision regarding the
findings of the report,
recommendations suggested,
any future research, etc
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