Basic Marketing

Chapter 7: Marketing Research and Marketing

Information

Dr. Junaid Jahangir

Assistant Professor (Management Sciences)
Preston university, Islamabad
Overview

 Marketing Research  Conduct the Situation Analysis

 The Marketing Research Function  Conduct an Informal Investigation
 Uses of Marketing Research  Plan and Conduct a Formal Investigation
 Scope of Marketing Research Activities  Select a Primary Data-Gathering Method
 Marketing Information System  Prepare Forms for Gathering Data
 Global Marketing Information System  Analyzing the Data and Present a Report
 Decision Support Systems (DSS)
 Conduct a Follow-Up
 Databases, Data Warehouses, and Data Mining
 Competitive Intelligence
 Major Data Sources
 Ethical Issues in Marketing Research
 Marketing Research Projects
 Status of Marketing Research
 Define the Objective
Marketing Research

 Market research is an evaluation analysis of collecting data related to the target market
or consumers. This research can be carried out directly by companies or institutions
that have expertise in market research. The process usually takes the form of
distributing surveys, interactions with a group of people as a sample, interviews, or
other similar processes.
 According to American Marketing Association, market research is a function that
connects consumers and the public with companies through information on
opportunities and problems in marketing. The data will be used to structure and adjust
marketing activities as well as determine customer service priorities and requirements
if any.
Marketing Research

 It consist of all activities that enables an organization to obtain the information it needs
to make decision about its environment, marketing mix, and present and potential
customers.
 Development, interpretation, and communication of decision-oriented information to be
used in all phases of the marketing process.
 Planning, Implementation, and evaluation
 Develop information, define problems, gathering and analyzing the data, interpreting
results, and presenting the information in such a way that is useful to managers.
The Marketing Research Function

 Market research is needed before the launch of the product

 Need of research on regular basis
 Research about the potential market
 Competitive pricing
 Quality of the product
 Gathering appropriate data and transform the raw data into useful information
Uses of Marketing Research

 Markets and Market Segments

 Market segmentation helps you get to know your customers, identify what's needed
in your market segment, and determine how you can best meet those needs with
your product or service.
 Common characteristics of a market segment include interests, lifestyle, age,
gender, etc. Common examples of market segmentation include geographic,
demographic, psychographic, and behavioral.
 Marketing Mix
 Product
 Price
 Place
 Promotion
Uses of Marketing Research

 Competition
 Important dimension of market research
 Information about competitors
 Expectations and Satisfaction
 Customers’ expectation
 Customers’ Satisfaction
 Problem identification and problem solving
Scope of Marketing Research Activities

Four main source sources of information

 Syndicated Services
 Regular scheduled reports which are produced and sold by research firms. It is
called syndicated services because they are developed without a particular client in
mind but are sold to anyone interested
 Marketing Information System
 Internally coordinated activity
 Continuous, scheduled or on demand standardized reports
 Mostly rely on internal data, such as sales reports, inventory amounts, and
production schedules
Scope of Marketing Research Activities

 Decision Support System

 Internal and interactive
 Interact directly with data through personal computer to answer specific questions
 E.g., Impact of advertising on sales volume
 Marketing Research Project
 Conducted by own staff or by an independent research firm to answer a specific question
Marketing Information System

 Usage of computers as a business tool

 Collecting the data, store the data and manipulate the larger amounts of data to aid
marketing decisions
 MkIS is an ongoing organized procedure to generate, analyze, disseminate, store and
retrieve information for use in marketing decisions
 Include real time data
 Generates regular reports and recurring studies as needed
 Analyze the data using statistical analysis and mathematical models that represent the
real world
 Integrates old and new data to provide information updates and identify trends
Marketing Information System

Systems and Procedures for

Requests for Information Data:
Marketing Collection
Manager Regular and Customized Analyses
Reports Storage
Retrieve and Dissemination
Global Marketing Information System

 Collecting data or information about targeted country

 Many companies maintained global marketing information system
 Centralized control over the information by computer specialists
 Fast information sharing system
 Global MkIS can be more complex as compare to domestic level
 Computers with greatly enlarged capacity and user-friendly software have reduced the
dependency and led to the development of decision support system (DSS)
Decision Support Systems (DSS)

 DSS is computer-based procedure that allows a manager to directly interact with data
using various methods of analysis to integrate, analyze, and interpret information
 Type of data like:
 Market data
 Customers’ data
 Competitors’ data
 Economic and social trends
 Organizations’ performance
 Methods for analyzing data
 Computing ratios or drawing graphs
 Statistical Techniques
 Mathematical models
Databases, Data Warehouses, and Data
Mining
 Databases
 MkIS and DSS uses data from a variety of sources both within the organization and
from outside suppliers.
 Typically data is organized, stored and updated in the computer system.
 Assembled the data pertinent to a particular topic – customers, market segments,
competitors, or industry trends.
 Data warehouse
 A large store of data accumulated from a wide range of sources within a company and
used to guide management decisions
 Data mining
 The practice of analyzing large databases in order to generate new information.
 Generating new information through advanced statistical and artificial intelligence
techniques
 These techniques have the capability to identify patterns and meaningful relationships
Major Data Sources

 Internal Data
 Sales force
 Marketing
 Manufacturing
 Accounting
 External Data
 Research suppliers
 Government data base system
 Retail scanners
 Electronic devices
Marketing Research Projects

 Marketing research projects used to identify the particular problem

 To answer the specific managerial question
 Results of the project may be used to make a particular decision
 It could also become a part of a database to be used in a MkIS or a DSS
Define the Objective

 It is essential that a clear idea of what is to be learned – the research objective – is

specified
 To solve problem but not always
 Better understanding of problem
 Determine if there is a problem
Conduct the Situation Analysis

 Situation surrounding the problem

 Analyzing the company, its market, its competition and the industry in general
 Background investigation that helps refine the research problem
 Obtaining the information about the company and its business environment
 Refine the problem
 Develop hypotheses for testing
Conduct an Informal Investigation

 Collection of preliminary data

 Gathering readily available information from relevant people inside and outside the
company like, middlemen, competitors, advertising agencies and consumers
 It is critical step in research project because it will determine whether further study is
necessary
Plan and Conduct a Formal Investigation

 If the project warrants continued investigation, the researcher must determine what
additional information is needed and how to gather it
 Select Sources of Information
 Primary data, secondary data or both can be used in an investigation
 Primary Data
 Gathering new data for specific project
 Secondary data
 Already available data, already gathered for some other projects
 Sources of Secondary Data
 Sources of Primary Data
Select a Primary Data-Gathering Method
 Observation Method
 Observing the actions of a person
 No direct interaction
 Survey Method
 Face to face interviews
 Telephone surveys
 Mail Survey
 Experimental Method
 The experimental method involves manipulating one variable to determine if this causes
changes in another variable. This method relies on controlled research methods, random
assignment of study subjects, and the manipulation of variables to test a hypothesis.
 Laboratory experiments
 Ads testing like, components of ads, message body explanation of product features etc.
 Field experiment
 Promotional activities and comparison
 Prepare Forms for Gathering Data
 Question wording
 Wording of questions should be understandable
 Reading level
 Should be written in simple form
 Response format
 Multiple choice
 Yes or No
 Agree disagree scale
 Open ended questions
 Questionnaire layout
 Easy to difficult questions
 Sensitive questions like or personal questions like, age, income or private Metter normally placed
at end of the questionnaire
 Pretesting
 All questionnaires should e pretested using a group of individuals similar to the intendent
respondents to identify the problems and make corrections and refinements prior to the actual
study
Prepare Forms for Gathering Data

 Plan the Sample

 Random sampling
 Convenience sampling
 Collecting the Data
 Collecting primary data by interviewing, observation, or both can be done by
people or machines
Analyzing the Data and Present a Report

 The value of research is determined by its results

 Transform the data into useful information through computer and different
mathematical and statistical tools

Conduct a Follow-Up
 Researcher should follow up their studies to determine whether their results and
recommendations are being used.
 May be management not choose the study findings for several reasons
 Without follow-up researcher has no way of knowing if the project was on target and
met management’s needs or if it fell short
Competitive Intelligence
 Increase attention in competitive intelligence
 Closely monitoring competitors
 Process of gathering and analyzing available public information about the activities and
plans of competitors
 Database created and sold by research firms
 Government reports – e.g., statistical bureau of Punjab
 Observation method
 Monitor competitors’ prices and promotions
 Reverse Engineering – buy a competitors’ new product and take it apart in order to examine
and test it
 Collecting data of competitors through some illegal ways
 Precautions to protect the security of confidential information , referred to as counter
intelligence
Ethical Issues in Marketing Research

 Privacy in data collection

 Observation through hidden cameras
 Observing the purchasing behavior of customers
 Collecting the data of purchasing record of the customer
 Privacy in data use
 Intrusiveness
 Deceptive implementation
 Researchers pretending to be a customer
 False representation
 Fund raising under the guise of research
 Negatively affecting the ability of legitimate researchers to gain respondents’
cooperation
Status of Marketing Research

 Predicting behavior is inexact

 Marketing research often cannot predict future market behavior accurately due to
involvement of many variables
 Conflicting objectives between researchers and managers
 Managers
 Quick decisions with incomplete information
 Researcher

 Approach the problems in a cautious and scientific manner

 Taking time for the decisions
 A project orientation to research
 Many managers do not treat marketing research as a continuous process
 Only use when managers realized that it has a marketing problem
Thanks