Download Research: Information or Knowledge??

Research Driven Decision
Making (MBA 8652)
Jeremy Kees, Ph.D.
Tonight’s Agenda
1. Review Course Structure /
Expectations
2. Get to know each other
3. Introduction to Research
4. Start forming “teams”
ABOUT ME
My Research
• I am consumer researcher (consumer
behavior)
• I am interested in public policy / social
marketing issues (e.g., nutrition, obesity,
smoking, pharma)
• 15 articles in peer-reviewed academic
journals; invited research talks in various
countries around the word; lots of
“popular press” mentions
• Consult for industry (pharma) and FDA
Course Overview
• Application Focused
– Focus on “non-technical” research
topics
– Real examples
– Experienced guest speakers
– No “text”
– Project-focused weekly assignments
• Exam
General Course Outline
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The Research Process
Problem Identification
Study Design
Measurement
Sampling
Data Collection
No data analysis
Classroom Environment
• COME PREPARED!!!!
• Speak freely
• Bring your experiences
So, let’s get started with some
basic content….
The purpose of research within an
organizational context is….
__________________
The Need for Information…
• Marketing research focuses on the use of
information as a source of strategic
advantage
• As managers, we should strive for a
thorough knowledge of customers, and
their attitudes, tastes, preferences
• We should also want to keep an eye on
competition (e.g., benchmarking)
• This information will help us making
strategic marketing decisions (e.g., 4 P’s)
Let’s examine what marketing
research is…
1. Managerial Function
2. It is the marketer’s (or firm’s) link to:
1. The External Environment
2. Customers
3. Consumers
3. Contributes to Marketing Knowledge
Who Uses Marketing Research?
• Fortune-500 Firms
– e.g., product tweeks, shelf location,
IMC campaigns, determining price
points
• Entrepreneurs
– e.g., Market size, growth potential,
viability
• And everyone in-between…
Research Can Tell Us….
•
•
•
•
•
•
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How our customer service is perceived by our customers and what
particular areas we can improve on or emphasize
How customers shop and how we can adjust our atmospherics to
maximize sales
What new products or new product features do customers want
How customers perceive us in relation to our key competitor (or do they
even recognize us as a key player in the industry)
Who our most loyal customers are and how do we cater to this important
segment
Who our prototypical customer is
How can we segment the market in more manageable groups
What marketing communications are most effective at reaching various
segments of the market
What is going to be the demand for a new product or an existing product
in a new market
Where should we build our next retail location
At what price point we can maximize profitability and maintain consumer
demand
Which media vehicles will be most effective to communicate our
advertising message
Etc.
Project vs. Process Approach
• Process Approach
– “Ongoing” Research
• Marketing Information Systems (MIS)
• Decision Support Systems (DSS)
– Based on the premise of collecting as
much data as possible and building
decision models that help us achieve
optimal decisions
Project vs. Process Approach
• Project Approach
– Our perspective for this course
– Unique problems require unique
designs, measures, samples, analyses,
etc.
– Each component is separate, but all
components are highly interrelated
Research Projects as Starting
rather than Ending Points
• More often than not, a project
reveals more questions than answers
• Research is an iterative process; each
project contributes to knowledge
(hopefully)
Research Projects as Starting
rather than Ending Points
• MOST research is exploratory in
nature
– Secondary sources; informal
observations, personal interviews, and
focus groups; convenience samples,
etc.
– Output of exploratory research is ____?
Research Projects as Starting
rather than Ending Points
• Once exploratory research has been
exhausted and relationships are
hypothesized, then we can move
onto descriptive or causal designs
– Much more structured—must lay out
the who, what, when, where, why
before data collection begins
Research: Information or
Knowledge??
• We know that research is more than
data…
• But is it sufficient to have data from
a research study to inform a
managerial decision?
– What about information?
– What about knowledge?
Research: Information or
Knowledge??
• It is relatively easy to go from data
to information
• It is much tougher to go from
information to knowledge
Research: Information or
Knowledge??
• Consider the following example:
– How many customers say that they intend to buy brand
X next month?
– How many consumers say that they intend to buy the
product category?
– How many of the consumers who say that they intend
to buy the brand are likely to do so?
– Can the intention-behavior relationship be generalized
for the product category?
Research: Information or
Knowledge??
• But we’re not very good at this in
practice
• Why hasn’t marketing as a discipline
been successful at accumulating
knowledge?
– Profitability and prestige are
constraints to discovering marketing
knowledge
– We also have a hard time sharing…
Research: Information or
Knowledge??
To sum…
• Marketing research does not exist
solely to provide information to
decision makers
• But also to develop a core body of
knowledge
Stages
in the
Research
Process
(Researchers
Perspective)
Formulate Problem
Determine Research Design
Design Data Collection
Method and Forms
Design Sample and Collect Data
Analyze and Interpret the Data
Prepare the Research Report
For Next Week….
• Reading:
– Beal: Chapters 1-2 and 4-6
– Andreasen, Alan R. (1985), “Backward
Marketing Research,” HBR, May/June,
176-182.
• Think about forming your groups