Download Focus Group Research

Managing Marketing
Information
The Importance of Marketing
Information
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Companies need information about their
customer needs, marketing environment, and
competition.
Managers lose as much as 3 hours a day
looking for the right information, costing U.S.
companies more than $2.5 billion annually.
Marketing managers do not need more
information, they need better information.
Developing Marketing
Information
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Internal Databases: Electronic collections of
information obtained from data sources within the
company.
Marketing Intelligence: Systematic collection and
analysis of publicly available information about
competitors and developments in the marketing
environment.
Marketing Research: Systematic design, collection,
analysis, and reporting of data relevant to a specific
marketing situation facing an organization.
Internal Databases
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The order-to-payment cycle
Sales information system, e.g. 7-11, 鼎泰豐.
Databases, data warehouses, and data
mining, e.g. Coca-Cola’s Georgia coffee.
Internal Databases
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Financial services
provider USSA uses its
extensive database to
tailor marketing offers
to the specific needs to
individual customers,
resulting in greater than
96% customer retention.
Marketing Intelligence
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Procter & Gamble admitted
to “dumpster diving” at rival
Unilever’s Helene Curtis
headquarters. When P&G’s
top management learned of
the questionable practice, it
stopped the project,
voluntarily informed
Unilever, and set up talks to
right whatever competitive
wrongs had been done.
How can the sales force of a
company be utilized as part of the
company’s marketing intelligence
system?
The Marketing Research Process
Define the Problem and
Research Objectives
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Exploratory research: to shed light on the real
nature of the problem and to suggest
possible solutions or new ideas.
Descriptive research: to ascertain certain
magnitudes.
Causal research: to test a cause-and-effect
relationship.
Develop the Research Plan
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Data Source
Research Approaches
Research Instruments
Sampling Plan
Contact Methods
Data Source
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Secondary Data: the data that were collected
for another purpose and already exist
somewhere.
Primary Data: the data that are freshly
gathered for a specific purpose or for a
specific research project.
Source of Secondary Data
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Internal Sources
Government Publication, e.g. United Nations,
行政院主計處.
Periodical and Books, e.g. 天下, 財訊, 商業週
刊.
Commercial Data, e.g. A. C. Nielsen.
Online Data, e.g. AMA, Bloomberg, Google,
TSEC, CEOExpress.
Research Approaches
- Source of Primary Data
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Observation research (觀察法)
Focus-group research (焦點群體法、集體訪
談法、深入訪談法)
Survey research (調查法)
Behavioral data (行為資料)
Experimental research (實驗研究)
Online marketing research
Observation Research
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Gathering data by observing the relevant
actors and settings.
Example: Does the number of people who
are behind you in a line affect your waiting
patience?
Observation Research
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People heavily shopped the periphery of the
store (80%) but frequently circumvented the
core dry-goods section (13~30%) that takes
up the bulk of store space.
Many shoppers are “dippers”.
P&G found that sales rose sharply when
items like coffee (↑500%) and toothpaste
(↑119%) were placed outside their normal
aisles on display racks.
Observational Research
Fisher-Price set up an observation lab in which it could observe the reactions of
little tots to new toys.
Ethnographic Research
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Observe consumers in their “natural
environments.”
Examples: Sunbeam’s Coleman Grill;
OnceFamous.
OnceFamous
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A unique ethnographic laboratory for studying
consumer behavior in a natural setting.
Some interesting results: man (e.g. Brookstone,
Sharper Image) vs. woman (e.g. Pottery Barn); cool
colors vs. warm colors; turn left vs. turn right.
Panel Study
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Purchase diary study, e.g. NPD (National
Purchase Diary Panel).
Media study, e.g. Nielsen’s people meters.
On-line research panel, e.g. MediaMetrix.
Focus Group Research
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A focus group is a gathering of 6 to 10 people
who are invited to spend a few hours with a
skilled moderator to discuss a product, service,
organization, or other marketing entity.
Useful exploratory step
Avoid generalizing the reported feelings of the
focus-group participants to the whole market.
Focus group research in progress
Outline of Focus Group Interview
Survey Research
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Learn about people’s knowledge, beliefs,
preferences, and satisfaction, and to
measure these magnitudes in the general
population.
Best suited for descriptive research
Major advantage – flexibility, e.g. Bissell’s
Steam’n Clean.
Limitations – subject’s language, privacy,
incapability, boasting, or cooperation.
Behavioral Data
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Customers’ actual purchases reflect
preferences and often are more reliable than
statements they offer to market researchers.
Database marketing
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market-basket analysis (市場菜籃分析), e.g.
Walmart → diaper + beer; 7-11 (POS) → 蕎麥麵 +
納豆.
customer profiling (顧客剖面分析)
Experimental Research
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Capture cause-and-effect relationship by
eliminating competing explanations of the
observed findings.
Most scientifically valid research
E.g. test marketing.
Online Marketing Research
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Online research now accounts for 8% of all
spending on quantitative.
Pros: low cost, access to respondents, speed,
and anonymity.
Cons:
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Hard to control who’s in the sample.
Lack the dynamics of more personal approaches.
Consumer privacy.
Research Instruments
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Questionnaires: flexibility, the most common
instrument used to collect primary data.
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Closed-end: easy to interpret and tabulate.
Open-end: more information; suited for
explanatory research.
Psychological tools: laddering techniques,
depth interviews, ZMET.
Mechanical devices
Mechanical Devices
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Mechanical Devices:
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People Meters
Supermarket Scanners
Galvanometer
Eye Cameras
Galvanometer
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Sensitive to affective stimulation
May present a picture of attention
May measure long-term recall
Useful in measuring effectiveness
Eye Cameras
Using Eye Cameras to Test
Banner Ads
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Many Internet users largely ignore banner ads.
Static banner ads elicited no reactions in the
traditional physiological measures and animated
ads elicited a mild response, with both types
being less effective than television advertising.
Viewer’s eyes first went to the text on the news
sites, ignoring graphics and ads, but they later
viewed as many as 45% of the banners –
thought only for an average of 1 second.
Sampling Plan
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Sampling units: Who is to be surveyed?
Sampling size: How many people should be
surveyed?
Sampling procedure: How should the
respondents be chosen?
Table 4.4: Types of Samples
A. Probability Sample
Simple random sample
Every member of the population has an
equal chance of selection
Stratified random sample
The population is divided into mutually
exclusive groups (such as age groups), and
random samples are drawn from each group
Cluster (area) sample
The population is divided into mutually
exclusive groups (such as city blocks), and
the researcher draws a sample of the
groups to interview
Table 4.4: Types of Samples
B. Nonprobability Sample
Convenience sample
The researcher selects the most
accessible population members
Judgment sample
The researcher selects population
members who are good prospects for
accurate information
Quota sample
The researcher finds and interviews a
prescribed number of people in each of
several categories
Can you think of a situation where a
nonprobability based sample would
yield better results than a
probability based
sample?
Contact Methods
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Mail: not biased or distorted by interviewers,
simple and clearly worded question, low
response rate.
Telephone: quick, interactive, higher response
rate than mail.
Personal interview: most versatile, expensive
and require more administrative planning and
supervision.
Online interview: convenient.
Interpreting and Reporting
Findings
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Managers should not blindly accepts faulty
interpretations from the researcher.
Managers may be biased – they might tend
to accept research results that show what
they expected and to reject those that they
did not expect or hope for.
The Failure of New Coke
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Why did Coca-Cola introduce New Coke?
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In the early 1980s, Coke was slowly losing market
share to Pepsi.
Pepsi had successfully mounted the “Pepsi
Challenge”, a series of televised taste tests
showing that consumers preferred the sweeter
taste of Pepsi.
By early 1985, Pepsi led in share of supermarket
sale by 2% (2% amounts to almost 1.2 billion in
retail sales!)
The Failure of New Coke
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What did Coca-Cola do before introducing
New Coke?
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It spent more than 2 years and $4 million on
research.
It conducted some 200,000 taste tests – 30,000
on the final formula alone.
In blind test, 60% of consumers chose the new
Coke over the old, and 52% chose it over Pepsi.
The Failure of New Coke
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Why did New Coke fail?
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It took no account of the intangibles – Coke’s
name, history, packaging, cultural heritage, and
image.
It used poor judgment in interpreting the research
and planning strategies around it.