DEFINING MARKETING RESEARCH PROBLEMS

What is Marketing Research?

Marketing Research is the systematic gathering, recording, and analysis of data about issues relating to marketing of products and services. The goal of marketing research is to identify and assess how changing elements of the marketing mix impacts customer behavior.

The term is commonly interchanged with Market Research, however, expert practitioners may wish to draw a distinction, in that Market Research is concerned specifically with Markets,

while Marketing Research is concerned specifically about Marketing Processes.

Marketing Research
Marketing Research is often partitioned into two sets of categorical pairs, either by Target Market: Consumer Business to Business (B2B) Or, alternatively, by methodological Approach: Qualitative Quantitative

Role of MR
The task of Marketing Research is to provide management with Relevant, Accurate, Reliable, Valid, and Current information. Competitive marketing environment and the ever-increasing costs attributed to poor decision making, require that marketing research provide sound information. Sound decisions are not based on gut feeling, intuition, or even pure judgment.

"DECIDE" model
The role of marketing research in managerial decision making is explained further using the framework of the "DECIDE" model: D - Define the marketing problem E - Enumerate the controllable and uncontrollable decision factors C - Collect relevant information I - Identify the best alternative D - Develop and implement a marketing plan E - Evaluate the decision and the decision process

Characteristics of Marketing Research

First, Marketing Research is Systematic.

Thus systematic planning is required at all the stages of the marketing research process.
The procedures followed at each stage are methodologically sound, well documented, and, as much as possible, planned in advance.

Marketing Research uses the scientific method in that data are collected and analyzed to test prior notions or hypotheses.

Characteristics of Marketing Research

Marketing research is Objective. It attempts to provide accurate information that reflects a true state of affairs. It should be conducted Impartially. While research is always influenced by the researcher's research philosophy, it should be free from the personal or political biases of the researcher or the management.

Characteristics of Marketing Research

Research which is motivated by personal or political gain involves a breach of professional standards. Such research is deliberately biased so as to result in predetermined findings. The motto of every researcher should be, "Find it and tell it like it is." The objective nature of marketing research underscores the importance of ethical considerations.

Types of Marketing Research

Marketing research techniques come in many forms, including: Ad Tracking periodic or continuous in-market research to monitor a brands performance using measures such as brand awareness, brand preference, and product usage. (Young, 2005) Advertising Research used to predict copy testing or track the efficacy of advertisements for any medium, measured by the ads ability to get attention, communicate the message, build the brands image, and motivate the consumer to purchase the product or service. (Young, 2005)

Types of Marketing Research

Brand Equity research - how favorably do consumers view the brand? Brand Association research - what do consumers associate with the brand? Brand Attribute research - what are the key traits that describe the brand promise? Brand Name Testing - what do consumers feel about the names of the products?

Types of Marketing Research

Commercial eye tracking research - examine advertisements, package designs, websites, etc. by analyzing visual behavior of the consumer Concept testing - to test the acceptance of a concept by target consumers Cool hunting - to make observations and predictions in changes of new or existing cultural trends in areas such as fashion, music, films, television, youth culture and lifestyle Buyer decision processes research - to determine what motivates people to buy and what decision-making process they use

Types of Marketing Research

Copy testing predicts in-market performance of an ad before it airs by analyzing audience levels of attention, brand linkage, motivation, entertainment, and communication, as well as breaking down the ads flow of attention and flow of emotion. (Young, p 213) Customer satisfaction research - quantitative or qualitative studies that yields an understanding of a customer's of satisfaction with a transaction Demand estimation - to determine the approximate level of demand for the product Distribution channel audits - to assess distributors and retailers attitudes toward a product, brand, or company

Types of Marketing Research

Internet strategic intelligence - searching for customer opinions in the Internet: chats, forums, web pages, blogs... where people express freely about their experiences with products, becoming strong "opinion formers" Marketing effectiveness and analytics - Building models and measuring results to determine the effectiveness of individual marketing activities. Mystery Consumer or Mystery shopping - An employee or representative of the market research firm anonymously contacts a salesperson and indicates he or she is shopping for a product. The shopper then records the entire experience. This method is often used for quality control or for researching competitors' products.

Types of Marketing Research

Positioning research - how does the target market see the brand relative to competitors? - what does the brand stand for? Price elasticity testing - to determine how sensitive customers are to price changes Sales forecasting - to determine the expected level of sales given the level of demand. With respect to other factors like Advertising expenditure, sales promotion etc. Segmentation research - to determine the demographic, psychographic, and behavioural characteristics of potential buyers Online panel - a group of individual who accepted to respond to marketing research online

Types of Marketing Research

Store audit - to measure the sales of a product or product line at a statistically selected store sample in order to determine market share, or to determine whether a retail store provides adequate service Test marketing - a small-scale product launch used to determine the likely acceptance of the product when it is introduced into a wider market Viral Marketing Research - refers to marketing research designed to estimate the probability that specific communications will be transmitted throughout an individuals Social Network. Estimates of Social Networking Potential (SNP) are combined with estimates of selling effectiveness to estimate ROI on specific combinations of messages and media

All of these forms of marketing research can be classified as either problem- identification research or as problem- solving research.

Marketing Research Methods

Based on questioning: Qualitative marketing research - generally used for exploratory purposes - small number of respondents not generalizable to the whole population - statistical significance and confidence not calculated - examples include focus groups, , and projective techniques Quantitative marketing research - generally used to draw conclusions - tests a specific hypothesis - uses random sampling techniques so as to infer from the sample to the population - involves a large number of respondents - examples include surveys and questionnaires. Techniques include choice modelling, maximum difference preference scaling, and

Marketing Research Methods

Based on Observations Ethnographic Studies - by nature qualitative, the researcher observes social phenomena in their natural setting - observations can occur cross-sectionally (observations made at one time) or longitudinally (observations occur over several time-periods) examples include product-use analysis and computer cookie traces. See also Ethnography and Observational techniques. Experimental techniques -, by nature quantitative, the researcher creates a quasi-artificial environment to try to control spurious factors, then manipulates at least one of the variables - examples include purchase laboratories and test markets

Business to Business Market Research

There are four key factors that make B2B market research special and different to consumer markets The decision making unit is far more complex in B2B markets than in consumer markets B2B products and their applications are more complex than consumer products B2B marketers address a much smaller number of customers who are very much larger in their consumption of products than is the case in consumer markets Personal relationships are of critical importance in B2B markets