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Principles of
Marketing
Chapter 4:
Managing Marketing
Information
Marketing Research and the
(Non)Ambidextrous Organization*
• Ambidextrous Organizations
•
(Tay and Lusch IEEE Intelligent Systems 2007)
Firms that both exploit their current competencies
[through efficiency improvement] while simultaneously
exploring new competencies [based upon firm strengths
and customer needs].

Exploration & Exploitation
• Nonambidextrous Organizations
•
Firms that exploit their current competencies but don’t
explore new competencies

Exploitation only
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
(Non)Ambidextrous Organizations*
• Both are “learning” organizations
 An
•
exploitation strategy
Learning via “crossover”
Combines knowledge in different ways to improve what it’s
doing
 Market stability pushes for greater focus here due to stable
buyer preferences

 An
•
exploration strategy
Learning via “mutation”
Adoption of new technology to evolve firm or market offering
 Market turbulence enhances applicability due to constant
changes in buyer preferences

Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Marketing Research
• Tools used span the continuum of
sophistication.
 Elaborate
conjoint analyses and Agent-Based
modeling programs to simple communication and
dialogue
•
Recall ketchup example?
 But
more information is not key; better
information is
•
On competitors to resellers; products to customer and
uses
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Information for Customer Insights
• Customer insight is key to information value
 Definition:
•
Fresh understanding of customers and the marketplace
derived from marketing information that becomes the
basis for creating customer value and relationships.
 Customer
insight is the origin of a differential
advantage.
•
“Customer Insight Teams” are replacing traditional
market research departments.

Note how the name change alters the focus from information to
customers’ needs
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Having the “Right” Insights
• “Cornerstone” of a Differential Advantage
 Marketing
•
Goal:

•
Giving the right information, at the right time, and in the right
form to help decision-makers in generating value
What is it?

•
Information Systems (MIS)
Consists of people and procedures for assessing information
needs, developing the needed information, and helping
decision makers to use the information to generate and
validate actionable customer and market insights
Valuable for not only marketing or the firm’s value
chain, but also the entire value delivery system
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Assessing Information Needs
• A “balancing” act…
 The
info. users would like vs. what they really
need and what is feasible to offer.
•
Bounded by
Availability
 Cost
 Managers’ not knowing what to ask for

 Too
much information is as bad as too little
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Developing Marketing Information
• Sources include:
•
Internal databases:

•
Competitive marketing intelligence:

•
Electronic collections of consumer and market info. obtained
from data sources within the firm’s network (e.g., website
usage by customers)
Systematic collection and analysis of publicly available
information about consumers, competitors, & the marketing
environment (e.g., annual reports, discussions on blogs, etc.)
Marketing research:

Systematic design, collection, analysis, and reporting of data
relevant to a specific marketing situation facing a firm (e.g.,
focus groups)
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
The Marketing Research Process
• Steps involved:
1.
Define the problem and research objectives.
2.
Develop research plan for collecting information.
3.
Implement the research plan
4.
Interpret and report the findings
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Defining Problem and Objectives
• Often the most difficult step of a project.
 Research
•
Exploratory research:

•
Gathering preliminary information that will help define the
problem and suggest hypotheses.
Descriptive research:

•
objectives may include:
Generating information to better describe marketing problems,
situations, or markets.
Causal research:

Testing hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Developing the Research Plan
• Requires:
1.
2.
3.
 The
•
•
•
•
•
Determining the exact information needed.
Developing a plan for gathering it efficiently.
Presenting the written plan to management.
research plan outlines:
Sources of existing data.
Specific research approaches.
Contact methods.
Sampling plans.
Instruments for data collection.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Developing the Research Plan (cont.)
• Research objectives must be translated into
specific information needs.
 Information
•
•
•
needs might include
Detailed customer characteristics,
Usage patterns,
Retailer reactions, etc.
• Research plan should be presented in a
written proposal.
 May
outline need for primary and secondary data
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Secondary Data
• Secondary data:
 Information
that already exists somewhere which
has been collected for another purpose.
 Common
•
•
•
sources of secondary data:
Internal databases
Commercial data services
Government sources
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
(Dis)Advantages of
Secondary Data
• Advantages:
 Available
more quickly and at a lower cost than
primary data.
 Can lead to information that an individual firm
could not gather itself.
• Disadvantages
 Desired
information may not exist.
 Must be carefully evaluated for relevancy,
accuracy, currency, and impartiality.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Primary Data
• Secondary data rarely provides all of the
necessary information, forcing firms to
collect primary data.
• Primary data:
 Consists
of information collected for the specific
purpose at hand.
•
Primary data must be relevant, accurate, current, and
unbiased.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Primary Data Collection Plan
• Designing a primary data collection plan
involves making decisions related to the:
 Research
•
Observation, survey, or experiment
 Contact
•
methods:
Mail, telephone, personal, or online
 Sampling
•
plan:
Sampling unit, sample size, and sampling procedure
 Research
•
approach:
instruments:
Questionnaire or mechanical instruments
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Observational Research
• The gathering of primary data by observing
relevant people, actions, and situations.
Can obtain information that people are unwilling or unable to
provide.
 Cannot be used to observe feelings, attitudes, and motives, and
long-term or infrequent behaviors.

 Ethnographic
•
research:
Trained observers watch and interact with consumers in
their “natural habitat.”

“Research with the purpose of articulating a socio-cultural
system embedded in human behavior,”* (Belk, Wallendorf, and Sherry 1989)
•
Yields richer understanding of consumers, but isn’t really “planned”
and instead “evolves” based upon themes*
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Survey Research
• Survey research:
 Gathers
primary data by asking people questions
about their knowledge, attitudes, preferences, and
buying behavior.
•
•
Most widely used method for primary data collection.
Best suited for gathering descriptive (i.e., correlational)
information.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Experimental Research
• Experimental research:
 Gathering
primary data by selecting matched
groups of subjects, giving them different
treatments, controlling related factors, and
checking for differences in group responses.
 Best suited for explaining cause-and-effect (i.e.,
causal) relationships.
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Methods of Contact
• Include but are not limited to:
 Mail
surveys
 Telephone surveys
 Personal interviews
•
•
Individual interviewing
Focus group interviewing
 Online
•
•
•
marketing research:
Internet surveys and online panels
Experiments
Online focus groups
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Sampling Plan
• Sample:
•
Segment of the population selected to represent the
population as a whole.
• Sampling requires three decisions:
1. Who

Selecting the sampling unit.
2. How

many people should be surveyed?
Referred to as sample size.
3. How

is to be surveyed?
should the people in the sample be chosen?
Describes the sampling procedure.
•
•
Probability sampling ~ members have a known chance (e.g., random)
Nonprobability ~ (e.g., snowballing, purposive [experts sampled]
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Research Instruments
• Questionnaire decisions:
 What
•
Form of each question?

•
questions to ask?
Closed-ended vs. Open-ended
Wording?
Double-barrel*,
 Framing* ~ “ground beef” or “Asian Disease” (Tversky & Kahneman, 1981)

•
Ordering?
• Mechanical devices:
•
People meters, checkout scanners, eye tracking devices,
neuromarketing (e.g., FMRI)
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Analyzing and Using
Marketing Information
• Customer relationship management (CRM):
•
Managing detailed information about individual
customers and carefully managing customer “touch
points” in order to maximize customer loyalty.
 Captures
•
customer information from all sources
Analyzes it in-depth

CRM analysts develop data warehouses and use data mining
techniques to find out information about customers and
generate new marketing opportunities
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University
Other Marketing Information
Considerations
 Small
businesses and nonprofit organizations can
also benefit from marketing research insights.
 International
marketing research is growing but
presents unique challenges.
 Misuse
of marketing research can harm
consumers. Public policy and ethics in marketing
research is concerned with:
•
•
Intrusions on consumer privacy
Misuse of research findings
Dr. James Carver – Auburn University