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Marketing Decision Problems
In order for a company’s marketing
objectives to become strategies, decisions
must be made. These decisions frequently
involve the allocation of significant
resources. Important decisions should be
informed decisions. Therefore, the decision
problems that arise from formulating
marketing strategy may require information
that marketing research can provide.
Marketing research that does not
help marketers make better, more informed
decisions is a waste of money. And given
how expensive marketing researcher can be,
the waste can be considerable. Therefore,
it’s critical that the marketing decision
maker and the marketing researcher have a
clear understanding of the decision problem
and the decision maker’s expectations for
the research. To follow are factors that can
affect how well the researcher comes to
understand the true nature of the decision
problem. Additionally, we’ll briefly look at
some of the tools available to market
researchers for getting the information
decision makers need.
Working with Decision Makers
Understand the Decision Situation
This need for clarity between
decision maker and researcher makes this
first portion of the marketing research
process rather interactive. To the extent that
time permits, the researcher should work
with the decision maker gaining an
understanding of the decision situation.
Decision situations can be thought of as
having two parts of interest to the marketing
researcher.
Nature of the decision problem.
First is the nature of the problem itself.
Researchers must be prepared to learn as
much as possible about every pertinent
aspect of the decision problem. For
example, if the decision maker’s business or
industry is one unfamiliar to the researcher,
s/he should spend time getting to know their
products, customers, and norms of doing
business. Such information will prove very
valuable when the time comes to select
samples, design research projects, develop
questionnaires, and collect and interpret
data.
Another part of understanding the
decision problem is understanding the
decision’s ramifications to the company.
One can safely assume that if a company is
willing to research a decision problem, then
the problem must be relatively important.
However, some decisions may carry huge
consequences for the company. Researchers
should be aware of what the decision
problem represents for the company’s
future.
To gain the best possible
understanding of the decision problem, the
researcher might wish to begin with a
“situation analysis,” which is formal and
systematic examination of the elements of
the marketing mix. Although time and
resource constraints make detailed situation
analyses impractical, when conducted they
can provide the researcher with the
information s/he needs to formulate the most
useful research questions and avoid wasting
resources on research of little or no help in
solving the decision problem. At the very
least, researchers should try to meet with
several people familiar with the decision
Marketing Decision Problems – page 2
problem. This permits the researcher to get
a broader view of the problem and avoid
approaching it from a narrower perspective.
Internal organizational environment.
The second part to a decision situation that’s
of interest to the researcher is the internal
organizational environment surrounding the
decision. The researcher should be aware of
any pressures facing the decision maker;
important business decisions frequently
contain an element of company politics.
When working with a decision maker, it’s
helpful to be aware of such matters, to the
extent possible.
Another important component to the
internal environment is the company’s
dominant decision style. Decision makers
that rely greatly on instinct or intuition may
have fairly minimal information needs,
while those with more deliberate decision
styles may require extensive information
and analysis. Clearly, how the decision
maker and his or her company approach
important decisions affects the nature and
the scope of their information needs.
Companies that encourage these different
decision styles may vary in their willingness
to provide resources for marketing research.
Appreciate the Decision Maker’s
Perspective
Marketing decision makers
frequently view the world from perspectives
that are very different from researchers.
Effectively communicating with decision
makers requires that researchers come to
appreciate how the decision maker views
their world and learn to speak the decision
maker’s “language.”
Exhibit 1 on the following page
gives some insight into these differences.
Effective and objective researchers should
view decision problems in an almost
detached way, similar to that of a scientist.
But decision makers become wound up in
the problems they face, often because the
stakes – financial, professional and personal
– may be quite high.
Importantly, researchers should not
muddle the communication process with the
sometimes complicated language of research
methodology. Instead, speak to the decision
makers in terms they understand and that
relate to their particular job and industry.
Because the decision maker is the
researcher’s customer, it’s incumbent upon
researchers to speak to them in terms they
understand rather than the other way around.
Help Formulate “Information Gaps”
Simply put, an “information gap” is
the difference between what a decision
maker would like to know about a given
decision problem and what s/he currently
knows. Working with the decision maker to
formulate his or her information gaps helps
both parties come to understand the role that
research will play in solving the decision
problem.
Why information gaps are useful.
First, formulating information gaps helps
bring structure to the decision problem.
Decision makers often present their
problems to researchers in very vague and
unstructured terms. For example, past
“clients” for this class have presented their
problems to us as “We’d like to figure out
how to attract more leisure travelers to the
Dayton area? (Dayton Convention and
Visitors Bureau)”, “What do I have to do to
increase my store revenue to a million
dollars per year? (Habitat for Humanity
ReStore),” or “How can we generate interest
in our film festival? (Dayton Area Indian
Film Festival Association)” In each of these
examples, clients presented broad unfocused
and seemingly difficult problems. By
working with their clients to discover what
they’d like to know in order to comfortably
Marketing Decision Problems – page 3
Exhibit 1. Perspective Differences of Decision Makers and Researchers
Attribute
Decision Maker's Perspective
Researcher's Perspective
Research Motivation
Attitude Toward Knowledge
Orientation
Level of Involvement
make symptoms disappear
wants questions answered
subjective and pragmatic
highly involved
discover true facts
wants to ask questions
objective and scientific
detached and analytical
make decisions, marketing researchers can
help bring structure to decision problems.
Second, information gaps help researchers
as the right research questions. As will be
discussed in later Web Notes, research
questions guide research efforts. Indeed, as
noted in Exhibit 1, an important orientation
of the researcher is to ask rather than answer
questions. Information gaps serve as a
valuable tool in helping the researcher
establish the research questions that will
guide the research project. In other words,
formulating information gaps helps
researchers ask the right questions to gather
the right information to fill the information
gaps.
Using information gaps. Now that
we’ve discussed why information gaps can
be useful, you’ll probably be surprised at
how simple they are to identify and use.
Market researchers should first encourage the
decision maker to adopt a “perfect world”
perspective to their information needs by
asking “If you could have any and all the
information you needed to confidently make
this decision, what would that information
look like?” The decision maker is likely to
respond by saying, “One thing I’d like to
know is . . .” That’s really all there is to an
information gap. Of course the researcher
should continue questioning the decision
maker to uncover more.
Let’s consider a recent example. A
few years ago, the class took the Habitat for
Humanity “ReStore” as a client. The
ReStore sells donated hardware and building
supplies and then uses the money to fund
Habitat’s homebuilding projects. The
ReStore’s manager wanted to grow revenues
to one million dollars per year. With that as
his objective he needed information to help
formulate a strategy. So, we asked him, “If
you could have any information you needed
to grow the store to a million in revenues,
what would that information look like?”
With a little extra prompting he replied, “I’d
like to know how many people even know
about our store.” “I’d like to know what
kinds of projects they take on.” “I’d like to
know where they currently get their building
supplies.” These and other simple gaps in the
decision maker’s information provided a
basis for formulating research questions,
which we cover in later Web Notes.
The so-called “perfect world”
perspective encourages decision makers not
to think too small. All too often cost
conscious decision makers will immediately
constrain their own needs because they
automatically assume that the information
they really need will be too expensive. By
starting with the optimal, researchers and
decision makers can get a clearer picture of
what information would be best. If the
projected costs of obtaining the all the
information needed to make a perfectly
informed decision proves too costly, then the
information needs can be prioritized and the
project scaled back appropriately. Starting
with the optimal and scaling back to a more
reasonable scope is preferable to initially
thinking too small and then wishing later that
more information had been collected.
Marketing Decision Problems – page 4
Types of Marketing Research and
Research Data
Marketing research studies and
marketing research data can be classified in
many different ways such as the originality
of the data, the source of the data, the
research methods used to obtain the data, the
numeric characteristics of the data, and so
on. As you go through the course you will
become familiar with the various categories
of data and their strengths, limitations, and
uses.
One commonly used distinction
concerns the originality of the data that are
collected. “Primary data” are original data
that specifically address a particular decision
problem. The data did not previously exist
and were collected at the request of a
decision maker facing some problem.
“Secondary data ” are data that already exist
and have already been collected to address
some other situation or problem but that
may be of help to the solving the decision
problem at hand. Beyond primary and
secondary data are “syndicated data,” which
are original data collected in predetermined
forms and then sold to marketers.
Primary, secondary, and syndicated
data all carry their own strengths and
weaknesses. Primary data have the
advantage of being original and customized
to address exactly the needs of the decision
maker. However, primary data can be very
expensive and time consuming to collect,
analyze, and report. Because secondary data
already exist, they will probably not exactly
address the decision problem at hand.
However, secondary data can be very
inexpensive – often free – and may even
exist within the decision maker’s own
organization. Syndicated data may be
original, but they are not customized to a
particular need. Moreover, they may be
purchased by many companies in the same
industry meaning that competitive firms
have access to them. And syndicated data
can be costly.
No matter how data are collected,
cost plays a necessarily important role in all
market research decisions. Therefore,
market researchers should always look to
secondary data sources first. Doing so can
save literally hundreds of thousands of
dollars. The abundance of information
available today is staggering and for a
researcher to recommend an expensive
primary research study or purchase of
syndicated data without first seriously
exploring secondary data sources violates
even basic researcher ethical norms.
Collecting Primary Data
Later Web Notes on Research
Designs and Exploratory Research detail
several of the most common primary data
collection techniques. Therefore we only
briefly go over them here.
Surveys. Surveys are the “bread and
butter” of the market research industry; this
primary data collection method is the most
commonly used in marketing research.
Several features characterize surveys
and distinguish them from other primary
research methods, in particular these four:
•
•
•
•
relatively large samples
closed ended questions
self report responses
numerical data that can be
statistically analyzed
Relatively large samples mean that
sample sizes number minimally in the
hundreds, maximally in the thousands. As
opposed to open ended questions, closed
ended questions limit respondents’ response
options. Respondents are not free to
formulate their own answers but must select
from a list of options. Self reports mean that
Marketing Decision Problems – page 5
respondents report on their own feelings,
opinions, or activities.
Experimentation. In experiments,
researchers manipulate certain experimental
factors and measure the results that those
manipulations produce on the experimental
participants. “Manipulate” simply means
change. Researchers change the value of
one or more experimental factors and
measure the effects of the change.
For example, researchers may wish
to see whether the package color of a new
product produces differences in the prestige
with which the product is regarded. They
prepare three packages, identical in every
way except for color. Three groups of
people each view one of the packages and
then respond to questions about it.
Researchers then compare the responses to
see which produced the greatest perceptions
of prestige.
In this example, the package color
changed from group to group; thus, this
experimental factor was manipulated. After
seeing their respective packages,
experimental participants provided their
perceptions of product prestige, making this
the variable that researchers measured. The
preceding suggests some characteristics of
experimentation that distinguish it from
survey research.
•
•
•
•
generally smaller samples
(though this need not be the case)
manipulation of one or more
factors
measurement by self-report or
observation
numerical data that can be
statistically analyzed
Measurement by observation refers
to the fact that in some experiments,
measurement occurs through observation by
machine or by a researcher. For example,
suppose marketers wished to know if
arranging wines on the shelf by country of
origin rather than by variety produced more
in-store browsing and more sales of
imported wines. They could arrange the
shelves differently at two similar stores then
make comparisons. Researchers could time
shoppers by observing them through
security cameras or by simply watching
from a discreet distance. With respect to
sales, directly observing shopper purchases
directly may no longer be necessary when
purchases may be observed mechanically by
scanning cash registers.
Focus groups and depth interviews.
Generally speaking, researchers rely on
these two primary data collection techniques
when simply exploring a research problem
in preparation for larger projects such as
surveys or experiments. However, given
their relatively low cost and the frequently
valuable and actionable information they
provide, many researchers – particularly
those on tight budgets – use these methods
exclusively.
Focus group interviews take place
with eight to twelve participants and a
moderator. The interview is a fairly
unstructured conversation about a marketing
question or problem led by the moderator.
During the interview, which generally lasts
between sixty and ninety minutes, the
moderator attempts to uncover the feelings
and motivations of the participants toward
the marketing question.
Depth interviews follow much the
same basic approach; however the interview
occurs with only one participant. Compared
to focus groups, depth interviews have the
advantage of exploring the thoughts and
feelings of one person in much more depth
and detail. However, they lack the
interaction and spontaneity associated with
the multiple participants.
Generally speaking, depth interviews
and focus group interviews possess the
following characteristics that distinguish
Marketing Decision Problems – page 6
them from other primary data collection
techniques:
•
•
•
small samples compared to
surveys or experiments
open ended questions
textual data that cannot be
statistically analyzed
resources at their disposal; when trimming
expenses becomes necessary, researchers
develop a strong sense of where best to trim.
very
Compared to surveys and
experimentation, the information gathered
by depth interviews and focus groups tends
to be richer and more truly reflective of
genuine human feelings. On the other hand,
depth interviews and focus groups collect
data that cannot easily be statistically
analyzed and cannot be scientifically
generalized to a population of interest.
Focus group or depth interviews may be
used to help clarify research issues in
preparation for a larger scale survey or
experiment. Surveys and experiments, when
conducted properly, do produce data that
can be generalized to a larger population.
As such, these various primary data
collection techniques play different parts in
the overall marketing research process.
Focus groups and depth interviews
frequently assist researchers in exploring the
nature of a decision problem and better
understand its dimensions. Surveys and
experiments build on this understanding by
testing hypotheses that help answer the
questions needed to solve the decision
problem.
Ideally, research projects combine
multiple data collection methods to produce
the most useful results for the decision
makers who need them. In practice,
however, this is often not the case. Like
any business activity, the buying and selling
of marketing research services represent a
series of trade offs, which as you can
imagine, frequently revolve around
budgetary issues. As such, effective
researchers learn to make the most of the
Collecting Secondary Data
Because we focus on primary data
collection techniques in later Web Notes, we
will give more attention to secondary data
collection here. As noted earlier, secondary
data are data that already exist, having been
previously collected for some other purpose.
We’re living in what some sociologists refer
to as the Information Age, which implies
that our society is characterized by large
quantities of data relatively easily
obtainable.
This is certainly the case in
developed economies. Data from studies
sponsored by government, business,
education, the press, and other organizations
are published in a variety of places, many
available free for the asking. In fact,
secondary data are becoming so easily
accessible and available in such large
quantities that an increasingly important job
for marketing researchers is to help decision
makers wade through and make sense of the
data available to them.
Sources of secondary data. For
purposes of this discussion, let’s divide
secondary data into two basic types
depending on where the secondary data
originate.
First is internal secondary data,
which are secondary data that originate from
sources inside the decision maker’s own
organization. Researchers and decision
makers should regard internal secondary
data as especially important because they are
basically free. Therefore, when available,
internal secondary data represent a
potentially valuable source of information
that can reduce the expense of primary data
collection and in some cases even eliminate
the need for it at all.
Marketing Decision Problems – page 7
Internal secondary data come from a
company’s own records. Well managed
organizations routinely capture information
during the course of business that can of
great value to marketing decision makers.
This information is frequently collected by
computer using software designed to
efficiently track businesses activities.
One source that can yield
information useful to marketers are sales
records that include some customer
information. Customer names and addresses
regularly appear on sales invoices. This data
can reveal interesting facts about customers.
For example, if the customer is a consumer,
then street addresses can be used to estimate
home size, income, broad areas of
employment, education levels and so forth.
Over hundreds of transactions, marketers
can gain good insight into their customers’
personal characteristics. When collecting
such information is practical and not
threatening or inconvenient to customers,
marketers should collect it for additional
analysis. The insights such analysis may
provide can greatly improve customer
service and retention.
Other internal company records that
marketing decision makers may find useful
are salesforce call sheets. When salespeople
call on organizational buyers, they
frequently must keep a record of the sales
call. These records normally include such
information as the customer called on, the
date and time of the call, whether or not the
salesperson personally met with a buyer,
who the buyer was, and the outcome of the
meeting. These call sheets can contain a
wealth of information about why potential
customers choose to buy or not.
Customers frequently initiate contact
with marketers to make inquiries or register
complaints. These contacts represent
another potentially valuable source of
internal secondary data. These inquiries
may contain important insights into what
customers are thinking and how to best meet
their needs.
Relatedly, most companies track
product returns and service calls. At first
glance, this information might seem of
better use to production departments than
marketing departments. However, product
returns and service calls can assist marketers
in improving or enhancing product features
in ways that better serve customer needs.
Marketers can provide valuable input into
how returns and service calls can be used to
actually enhance customer loyalty.
Research has shown that when products fail
altogether or require repair, customers who
are treated well often develop stronger
connections to that product or brand than
they felt before. Customers wish to be
respected and to be treated justly by the
companies with whom they do business.
Therefore, marketers can potentially
contribute much to designing product return
or repair policies. Information regarding
returns or repairs are needed to make that
contribution possible.
Occasionally large companies that
are comprised of multiple divisions or that
operate in many locations will collect or
produce information that should be shared
with other divisions or locations. Market
analyses, sales forecasts, product feasibility
studies, and numerous other reports
frequently wind up in file cabinets when
they might prove useful to other parts of the
company. Indeed, large companies can
produce vast quantities of information that
may have been collected or assembled for
one project but may be useful to another.
The result of not sharing such information
may be costly duplication of efforts.
The second main source of
secondary data is external secondary data,
which are secondary data originating outside
the decision maker’s organization. External
secondary data offers nearly limitless
possibilities for finding at least some
Marketing Decision Problems – page 8
Exhibit 2. Popular Business Directories and Surveys
Source
Description
U.S. Industrial Outlook
This report uses U.S. government data to profile sales and growth
trends for over 400 industries.
Survey of Buying Power
Subscribers to Sales and Marketing Management magazine receive
this annual report on population, buying income and retail sales for
cities and counties in the U.S. and Canada.
Standard and Poor’s
S&P continuously monitors vital financial statistics of
Industry Surveys
approximately 1500 firms in over sixty industries.
Standard Directory of
This directory lists the advertising expenditures and media used for
Advertisers
hundreds of U.S. companies
Media Research Report
Focusing on newspaper advertising, this report lists advertising
space purchased by over 200 of the nations largest newspapers.
research that can usefully inform decision
problems. The availability of the World
Wide Web and powerful search engines
offer tools for organizing and prioritizing
much of this information.
Many of the most useful external
secondary data sources are specific to
particular industries or business functions,
so researchers should become familiar with
as many of these potential sources as
possible. If a researcher is completely
unfamiliar with potential sources of external
secondary data on a particular topic, there
are a few sources that often provide a useful
starting point no matter what the subject.
One place to begin searching is for
government sources. The federal
government annually publishes millions of
pages of material on virtually every subject
imaginable. Subjects of particular interest to
marketers may originate in the Department
of Commerce, the Bureau of Labor
Statistics, the Treasury Department, the
Federal Reserve Board, the Federal Trade
Commission, and the Census Bureau among
others. We will look more closely at some
government sources of secondary data later
when we examine population demographics.
Another source, the popular press,
reports research results that serve as the
basis for various news stories. The term
popular press refers to any generally
available news media source easily
accessible by the general public. Even the
popular press has many areas of
specialization including the popular business
press, the popular family press, the popular
medical press, and so on. Each of these
areas reports stories often based on research
that may contain information useful to
marketing researchers.
Still another source is the academic
press. The academic press consists of
primarily of scholarly journals that report
the results of basic research studies. Basic
research refers to studies conducted in the
name of scientific inquiry and not for the
purposes of solving a particular decision
maker’s problem. However, the research
questions addressed by basic research may
have direct applications to many problems
faced by marketing decision makers.
Moreover, the academic literature is very
large, consisting of thousands of journals in
every academic discipline. Many libraries
offer powerful search engines that can help
narrow the search process.
Still another source, business
directories and business panel surveys,
provides a wide variety of information about
businesses, and business activities. Although
some may be available at public or university
Marketing Decision Problems – page 9
libraries, most business directories and
surveys must be purchased. A few of these
sources are given in Exhibit 2.
Problems with secondary data.
Secondary data suffer from two possible
problems that could inhibit their usefulness.
The difference between these two problems
can be subtle, and they can occur at the same
time, so marketing researchers should be
aware of these problems and their effects.
The first problem potentially
affecting secondary data are called
“problems of fit.” Problems of fitarise when
the secondary data do not exactly match the
parameters of the decision
problem. The question facing researchers
and decision makers is whether the problems
of fit sufficiently outweigh the value of the
data in terms of its low cost and immediate
availability.
Problems of fit most frequently arise
when the decision problems, research
questions, and variables guiding the current
research differ from those that guided the
research that originally produced the
secondary data. For example, suppose a
researcher seeks information about
consumer demand for recycled paper
products. Instead she finds a study that
reports on increases in consumer willingness
participate in recycling programs. What the
researcher wants and what she finds do not
exactly match, so she must decide whether
increasing willingness to relates well to a
demand for recycled paper products. If so,
then she may be able to forego the time and
expense of primary data collection.
Problems fit may also arise when the
sample used in a published study differ from
the people around whom the decision
problem centers. For example, suppose the
marketing researcher desires information
about demand for recycled paper among a
population consisting of married college
educated females aged 25 to 34, with annual
incomes above $24,000. Suppose she finds
good information except that it applies to
women over forty-five. Again, the data do
not exactly fit the problem parameters but
may be close enough. Whether or not it is,
of course, simply requires good judgment.
The second problem that can affect
secondary data are called “problems of
accuracy.” Problems of accuracy arise when
the research study that produced the
secondary data suffers from any of several
possible factors that adversely affect its
credibility. That is, for whatever reason, the
data may not be believable.
In general, researchers may attribute
problems of accuracy to any of three
sources. One, the data may simply be too
old. Changing circumstances or events
occurring since publication of the original
research may strongly suggest that if
identical research were conducted today, the
results would be different. How old is too
old depends on a variety of factors including
the subject matter and the sample that
provided the data. Because of these factors,
wide variation may exist in when secondary
data become too old to be useful. As a
general rule, however, researchers should
look carefully at data more than five years
old.
Two, the data may be
methodologically suspect. Just because
someone publishes a study does not mean
that the research behind the study employed
acceptable research methods. As we will
discuss in the weeks ahead, bias can creep
into research results from many sources.
This bias may move the data further and
further away from the truth, which can be
disastrous for drawing valid conclusions.
When evaluating secondary data,
researchers must look hard at how the data
were collected, which implies that
researchers must know what constitutes
good research methodology.
Three, the data may have been
originally collected to advance a particular
Marketing Decision Problems – page 10
point of view, meaning that they may not be
objective. Many organizations conduct and
publish research in an attempt to lend
credence to their views. For example,
suppose the researcher seeking information
about demand for recycled paper products
finds a report published by a paper
manufacturer. Or conversely, suppose the
researcher finds a report published by an
environmental activist group. Might these
organizations have different views on the
state of recycling in the United States, and
might their views be affected by the goals of
their organizations? When research is
conducted or chiefly sponsored by an
organization with a financial, political or
social agenda, the results should be viewed
skeptically. This does not suggest that the
results should be disregarded, of course.
Researchers should simply exercise common
sense when drawing their conclusions.
When secondary data suffer from
problems of fit, accuracy, or both,
researchers and decision makers must weigh
the severity of the problems against the
potential cost and time savings of having
data in hand. Very often the deciding factor
will be how critical the decision problem is
to the future of the firm. Clearly, the more
critical the decision problem, the greater the
need is for accurate data that fit the decision
problem well.
Purchasing Syndicated Data
In addition to primary and secondary
data, marketers should also consider
syndicated data as an important potential
source of information. Syndicated data are
often original data, but they are collected in
standardized forms solely for the purpose of
selling to users of such data. A common
example of syndicated data is the Nielsen
television rating information. ACNielsen
Company collects TV ratings information
from viewers around the country and then
sells them to television stations and to
networks. Networks and stations use the
ratings to make programming decisions and
to set advertising rates.
Syndicated data occupies a sort of
middle ground between primary and
secondary data. While the data are original
like primary data, they are not collected by
special order. Instead, they are purchased
“off the menu.” Assuming the syndicated
data are purchased from a reputable
supplier, problems of accuracy rarely arise.
However, because syndicated data are not
custom collected, they may suffer from
problems of fit. And syndicated data
suppliers will sell data to whatever firms
wish to buy it, meaning the data are
typically available to competing firms.
The most common types of
syndicated data are media studies, consumer
panel studies, and retail scanner studies.
Some syndicated data providers combine
these into more comprehensive studies.
Media studies typically provide audience
information to advertisers and media
providers. As noted earlier, the AC Nielsen
television ratings are probably the best
known syndicated data source. There are
others, of course. Arbitron sells data on
radio audiences in similar fashion to the
Nielsen television ratings. Starch Reports
provides information on magazine ad
readership and the Audit Bureau of
Circulation collects and sells data on
magazine and newspaper circulation.
Consumer panels offer long term
information on consumer thinking and
behaviors. A panel is a group of consumers
ranging in size from several dozen to several
hundred that provide information on their
and their families’ purchases, media habits,
demographic changes, and attitudes over
extended periods of time. Some consumer
panels have been in existence for decades,
though obviously some attrition is to be
expected. Panel participants permit their
Marketing Decision Problems – page 11
purchases to be tracked, their TV and radio
listening to be monitored, and regularly
provide responses to questions about their
attitudes to everything from marketplace
activities to social phenomena. Using panel
data, marketers can track changes in
consumer behaviors and purchase patterns
over extended periods. Panel members are
typically aid by the syndicated data provider
for their participation.
Consumer panels are operated by
some of the same companies that provide
media data. For example, AC Nielsen also
operates several consumer panels that track
various aspects of consumer buying
behavior. Large national polling companies
such as Harris, Roper, and Gallup also
operate consumer panels of varying size and
focus.
Retail scanner studies are a relatively
new phenomenon to marketing research, but
are now a mainstay source of marketplace
information. Syndicated data companies
such as Nielsen and IRI gather, aggregate,
and sort sales data from scanning cash
register check-out systems and then
correlate those figures with factors such as
price, advertising, shelf location, shopping
distance, and competitive climate. The data
are then sold to manufacturers and retailers
seeking to gain advantage and insight into
their consumers preferences and habits.
Marketing Decision Problems – page 12
Sources
Material regarding the differing perspectives
of researchers and decision makers was
adapted from
Zikmund, William (2000), Business
Research Methods (6th ed). Fort Worth,
Texas: The Dryden Press.
Problems with secondary data was adapted
from
Tull, Donald S. and Del I. Hawkins (1987),
Marketing Research: Measurement and
Method (4th ed.). New York: Macmillam
Publishing.
Some other material was adapted from
Crask, Melvin, Richard J. Fox, and Roy G.
Stout (1995), Marketing Research:
Principles & Applications. Englewood
Cliffs, NJ: Prentice Hall.