Marketing Research

ADM 2320
Gurprit Kindra PhD

I wish to thank my colleague - professor Mike Mulvey - who has so generously shared his teaching materials,
as well as numerous pedagogical ideas with me.

Objectives
• To understand the various tools employed for
primary and secondary market research
• To understand the limitations of various tools like
surveys and focus groups
• To be able to appreciate the evolution of MR to
online research, both in terms of primary and
secondary research
• To understand the key benefits of online MR
• To be able to access various sources of CI
• To be able to appreciate the current state of
online MR

Why Marketers Research

• To help make decisions

• To gain knowledge & understanding
• For political purposes
• To increase comfort
• To be more successful

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 Sources of Information
Internal Data Government Sources Commercial Sources
Accounting information Statistics Canada Companies and trade
associations collect,
Sales information Federal, provincial and
analyze, and report
municipal agencies
Backorders information
United Nations
Customer complaints Public opinion polls
Consumption and
purchase data
Advertising research

Types of Research:
A Question of Appropriateness

Exploratory Research

Descriptive Research

Causal Research

Traditional Market Research

Methods
• Survey Research
• Focus Groups
• Executive/Consumer
Interviews
• Mystery Shopping
• Competitive Intelligence
• Statistical Analysis
– Groups of variables (factor analysis)
– Groups of people (cluster analysis)
– Inter-group differences (discriminate)

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 Sampling Issues in Surveys
• Sampling procedures: random,
stratified, block and convenient.
• The only reason for taking a sample
is to make valid inferences about
some population (representative-
ness).
• Generalizability/external validity
(non-response bias and “sampling errors”),
internal validity (aka “measurement error”)
interaction effect and causality.

Avoid These Pitfalls

• Leading questions
– “What’s your opinion of Canada’s cruel,
ruthless, and unnecessary slaughter of baby
seal pups?”
• Two-in-one questions
– “Do you like my tests and assignments?”
• Ambiguous questions
– “How regularly do you work out?”
– “Do you like soda?”
– “Do you go to church (regularly)?”
• Non-mutually exclusive questions
– “What is your age?”
❑ under 20 ❑ 20-40 ❑ 40+
• Non-exhaustive questions
– “Where do you live?”
❑ house ❑ apartment
• Unanswerable questions 8
– When did you first eat ice cream?

Executive Interviews
• Typically very expensive; in
their office; when they can fit
you in
• Topic requires lot of credibility
• Good for depth, questions can
tip your hand and put the topic
“in circulation”
• Sometimes the only relevant
population is a small group of
decision makers; a near census
• Interviewer of appropriate level

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 Consumer Interviews and Panels

• Greater opportunity for

feedback ≈
• Able to probe in more depth
SHREK: For your information, there's a lot more to ogres than
with the individual people think.
• People may be more willing to DONKEY: Example?
share more in an individual SHREK: Example? Okay. Uh... ogres are like onions.
versus group setting DONKEY: They stink?

• Greater flexibility in content SHREK: Yes. No!

covered DONKEY: Oh, they make you cry?

SHREK: No!
• Duration can be longer
DONKEY: Oh, you leave them out in the sun, they get all brown and
• High participation rates start sprouting little white hairs.

• Use visual aids SHREK: No! Layers! Onions have layers. Ogres have layers. Onions
have layers. You get it? We both have layers.
DONKEY: Oh... you both have layers... You know, not everybody like
onions. Cakes! Everybody likes cakes. Cakes have layers.
SHREK: I don't care what everyone likes. Ogres are not like cakes...
You dunce, irritating, miniature beast of burden. Ogres are like onions.
End of story. Bye bye. See ya later... 10

Mystery Shopping
• Send out buyers or make
phone calls as customers
• Test efficiency,
effectiveness, and courtesy
of sales staff
• Good test for
– Long waiting times?
– Mistakes?
– Areas that need training
• An ethical dimension

Behind the Mirror: Focus

Groups
• Can explore topics in depth.
• Interaction can stimulate new
ideas.
• Quick to organize and execute.
• Provides clues to group’s
“shared concerns.”
• Opportunity to observe
customers or prospects (from
behind one-way mirror).
• Tests your preconceived
assumptions
Moderator plays a crucial role
• Typically taped and
summarized

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4
 Focus Groups via
Video-Conferencing

Source: Prof. Burke

Business Traveler: Hotel Choice

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Achievement/ Success

PERSONAL Be productive
VALUES

Able to focus

Michael, Sales Representative USAGE Less stress/

60-100 business nights/year In control
BENEFITS Fewer worries

Reliability

PRODUCT Consistency
ATTRIBUTES

Room furnishings
“good bed” Cleanliness
“shower & towels”

Weaving Motivation into

Advertising
Why do I care?

What is in it for me?

PRODUCT SELF

• What motivational themes

are used to establish
Hampton Inn’s brand image
and market positioning?
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 Data Mining
• Customer acquisition
– Examine consumer
response patterns
• Customer retention
– Send special offers to high-
spending customers only
• Customer
abandonment
– Identify unprofitable
customers
• Market basket analysis
– Identify sets of
complimentary goods
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Spurious correlations/Patterns
in Data
• Sales data remain one of a company’s most important assets. In
2004 Wal-Mart peered into its mammoth databases and noticed
that before a hurricane struck, there was a run on flashlights and
batteries, as might be expected; but also on Pop-Tarts, a sugary
American breakfast snack. On reflection it is clear that the snack
would be a handy thing to eat in a blackout, but the retailer would
not have thought to stock up on it before a storm.
• Best Buy, a retailer, found that 7% of its customers accounted for
43% of its sales, so it reorganised its stores to concentrate on
those customers’ needs.
• Airline yield management improved because analytical
techniques uncovered the best predictor that a passenger would
actually catch a flight he had booked: that he had ordered a
vegetarian meal.
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Spurious Correlations/Patterns in
Data

• Cablecom, a Swiss telecoms operator has reduced

customer defections from one-fifth of subscribers a year
to under 5% by crunching its numbers. Its software
spotted that although customer defections peaked in the
13th month, the decision to leave was made much
earlier, around the ninth month (as indicated by things
like the number of calls to customer support services).
So Cablecom offered certain customers special deals
seven months into their subscription and reaped the
rewards.

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6
 Market Basket Analysis
Used to identify:
• Cross-Selling
Opportunities: Which
products or categories
usually sell together and
can be promoted as a
package
• Substitute,
complementary or
antagonistic products
within a category
• Purchasing patterns
based on consumer
profile characteristics
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Observational Research
• The systematic process of
recording the behavioral
patterns of people, objects,
and occurrences
• Types:
– Personal.
– Mechanical.
• Provides an opportunity to
watch what people actually
do.

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Videography & Photography

• Can record naturalistic observations.
– Examples: Researchers for Nissan give truck owners
camcorders to record the uses they made of their trucks.
• High level of candor, capture spontaneous
behaviours.
• Body language, often considered to be at least as
important at communicating meaning as oral
language is captured in video, but not in audio.
• Proxemics, kinesics, and other kinetic forms of body
expression can also be captured.

21

7
 Especially useful to study…
• Routine, everyday behaviors
– People don’t always think about their
actions
• How consumers use the product
– Up close, personal insight
• Unpleasant or sensitive subject
matters
– Surveys may fail to yield reliable data
• Special groups of consumers
– Very young, very old…

Envirosell
(with Paco Underhill)
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Projective Techniques
• Methods used to uncover
deep-rooted thoughts that
may not arise as a result of
direct questioning.
• Used to help consumers
articulate their true feelings
and emotions and to
explore aspects of
imagination.
• GF Instant Coffee

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Trend Spotting using Content Analysis

• Venture capitalist and a

Harvard student
• Analyzed articles from several
magazines and trade journals
• Performed a “forensic analysis”
of failed dot.com companies
• Identifying patterns and
seeking ideas for new ventures

Would You Buy a Used

Dotcom from this Man?
Maybe some of those crazy ideas from
the boom weren't so crazy after all. A
Valley venture capitalist sifts through the
dust of the bust.

Issue 14.02 | February 2006

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 Competitive Intelligence
• Usually aimed at the
competition: their resources,
their prices, their size and intent
• Often information is openly
available; needs to be organized
and pulled together
• Talk to their customers,
suppliers, business press
• Annual reports, press releases,
and web sites
• Former employees often ready
to talk

Competitive Intelligence
• Stats Canada
– CANSIM database has 3
components
• Time series data
• Cross-classified data from
other departments
• census summary data
• Industry Canada’s Strategis
• Fedworld Accessible
Databases
– Over 200 Databases
• Economic and Business CANSIM
Resources [email protected]

Fedworld Accessible
Databases
• Over 200 databases, including:
– nssdc
• NASA Small Business Rsearch
– NOAA-ESDD
• Environmental service data
– NCJRS-BBs
• National criminal justice reference
– TQM-BBS
• Total quality Management
– DRIPSS (EPA)
• Drinking water Information
– PIN BBS
• Pesticide Information Network
– EnviroNET
• Space environment Information
– TEBBS (OGE)
• Office of Government Ethics
– ARA-BBS
• Aviation Rule Making Advisory
– PREVline
• Alcohol and drug Information

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 Other CI Sources
• Dialog (over 450 searchable
databases)
• Economist Intelligence Unit
• FIND
Financial Post
• Boeing databases
• CISTI (of NRC)
• BIOSCAN
• FIND
• CANSIM (statscan)
• Lexis-Nexis (legal database)
• JETA (Japan Export Trade
Association)

Other CI Sources
• Other government publications
– FAIT, Industry Canada (Strategis), Environment Canada Health
Canada (CHN)
• Newspapers and magazines
• Trade, professional, and business publications
• Foundations and “think tanks”
– Institute for Research in Public Policy: Policy Options
– Conference Board of Canada publishes: Canadian Business
Review, Handbook of Canadian Consumer Markets, Canadian
Outlook: Economic Forecast; AERIC Database
– CD Howe Institute
– The Hudson Institute
– The Fraser Institute
– The Atlantic Provinces Economic Council

Other CI Sources
• Advertising Media
– The Canadian Marketing Goldbook; annually published
contains 20,000 listings covering all aspects of marketing
industry in Canada
– Media Editorial Profile; profiles 700 consumer and business
magazines
– Report on Advertising Revenues in Canada
– The National List of Advertisers; details on over 3000
national advertisers, brands etc.
– Canadian Advertising Rates and Data; monthly
• Indexing Services and Databases
– The Canadian Business and Current Affairs (combines
Canadian Business index, Canadian Magazine Index and
Canadian News Index
• Directories: numerous trade, and industries
– Canadian Guide to Industrial Marketing Information,
Financial Post Directory of Directors, The Financial Post and
Canadian Business publish list of Top 500 companies

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 Other CI Sources
• International Sources
– The UN Statistical Yearbook
– The World Bank’s The World Atlas \ and The World Tables
– Private publishers like Predicasts offer World Studies;
Euromonitor publishes International Marketing Data and Stats;
Gower Inc. publishes World Index of Economic Forecasts
• Syndicated Data sources
– Canadian Facts
– CF Monitor of 2000 persons; Contemporary Research Centre
operates the CRC Omnibus; Gallup Canada has the Gallup
National Omnibus; Marketing Facts runs the Telenation which
surveys 1000 different people each week; Omnifacts has the
Omnifacts Atlantic Report and Thompson Lightstone has its
Omnitel

Some Online Research

Suppliers
• Perseus
• Surveymonkey.com
• Zoomerang
• Bizrate.com
• www.modals.com: Web-based surveys, e-mail surveys.
Respondents recruited on the web.
• www.comscore.com: Generates company-specific
panels and monitors their web behavior.
• www.greenfield.com: 2.2 million panelists who have
volunteered to be members. Participates in drawing to
win cash prizes.
• www.harrisinteractive.com: 7 million panelists worldwide.

Click here for a sample report

Click here for sample presentation

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