Marketing Research

Marketing Research The systematic collection, analysis, and interpretation of information used to develop a marketing strategy or to solve a marketing problem.

Marketing Research • Need to collect information systematically, in a methodical, organized manner • Analysis of responses must be extensive • Amount of information must be great enough that sound decisions can be made based on it

Marketing Research • Intuitive decision: a decision based on feelings and prior knowledge. Made automatically and instinctively • Hard Data: information based on supportable facts (which can then be used to support or refute intuitive decisions

When is Marketing Research Needed? • Both small and large businesses use marketing research to make their marketing efforts more successful. • If there isn’t a problem, then it’s probably not needed (eg. A small bakery that has plenty of customers, and sells everything that’s made. The bakery may not be able to support being busier anyway!) • But, if there is a problem (Bakery wants to make more money or expand, or a strong competitor moves into the market), then Marketing Research is probably needed to help solve it.

When is Marketing Research Needed? • Marketing Research firms provide businesses with professional researchers to collect, analyze and interpret the information/data that is relevant to a specific business’s marketing effort

Secondary Data • Secondary data is marketing-research information that has been collected and published by others • Secondary research involved searching for this type of information and then analyzing and interpreting the data to improve a company’s marketing efforts. • Usually less expensive than Primary research

Secondary Data • Available from a variety of sources: • Books • Periodicals (magazines, newspapers, journals and reports) • Indexes • Databases (lists of info organized by category, like we have on our library website) • Internet – need to be careful using search engines like Google, as info may be inaccurate, unedited etc. • Consultants (some are businesses themselves, others like college & university departments, government agencies, some financial institutions offer consulting free of charge. Local chambers of commerce good places for free consultation services.) • Marketing research professionals (frequently sell the data they have gathered on specific markets)

Using Secondary Data • Can be used by any business to help develop its marketing strategy and assist its marketing executives in decision making and problem solving • Best to use a variety of secondary data sources to best get an idea of what the market is like.

Gathering Primary Data • Primary Data: unanalyzed, current information collected by researchers for a specific purpose

Primary Data • Qualitative research: used to measure people’s reactions, responses or feelings toward a given subject or problem • Blind taste test • Opinion polls

Primary Data • Quantitative research: involves collecting data by surveying a representative sample of a target-market population • Researchers use the results of the sample to make predictions about the opinions and behaviour of the entire target market. • Companies that determine the ratings of television programs use quantitative research

Test Marketing – Primary Data • To collect data on how well a product might sell, some marketers produce a limited quantity of the product and introduce it into test markets. • Test Markets are sites that mirror the demographic composition of the country as a whole. • Peterborough is often used a test market because its demographic profile is so similar to the profile of a typical Canadian city.

Test Marketing – Primary Data • Test markets often used for packaged goods like soup, toothpaste, cereal or beverages • Movies are test marketed at private screenings or at sneak previews

Test Marketing – Primary Data • Test Marketers can operate in a variety of ways: • Place the product in one or two retail stores and monitor the sales • Change the product packaging, in-store display locations, in-store advertising, pricing, or any other variable in one store and not change anything about the product in another store & compare results • Try different promotions in different stores and see if the sale results were different in each store

Test Marketing – Primary Data • Marketers prefer to keep the location of the test market a secret to ensure that consumers in the test market perform as normal consumers • Otherwise the test results might be skewed – meaning that they test results would not be accurate

Internal Information Sources – Primary Data • Sales records provide data about the popularity of products or lines, show seasonal fluctuations in sales, and perhaps even predict future sales and inventory levels • Inventory records provide additional info on seasonal variations • Advertising and promotional records contain data concerning the success or failure of specific ads, promotions, sampling efforts, contests, etc • Production records indicate peak ordering periods and downtimes, information that can help with the scheduling of marketing and advertising plans

Internal Information Sources – Primary Data • Companies develop databases that provide both personal data and purchasing records for every customer they serve. • The info can be used to target previous buyers with sales promotions and advertising

Internal Information Sources – Primary Data • Client cards, frequent-purchaser cards, incentive cards, reward programs and other buyer clubs may require the consumer to provide personal data in order to obtain the card. • Each time the card is used, the company records specific purchasing data.

Internal Information Sources – Primary Data • Businesses use data mining to determine relationships between personal information and purchasing behaviour. • Data mining is a research process marketers use to look for unknown connections and patterns among collected data and to extract useful information from the volumes of data available, usually using task-specific software.

Internal Information Sources – Primary Data • Data mining can tell how many customers on a business’s database have purchased greater than $25 worth of a product in the last 3 months, are female, are between the ages of 30-35, and work in the retail service sector in a mid-management position. • With proper follow up, this can be very useful information

Surveys – Primary Data • A survey is a set of carefully planned questions that are used to gather data • Can be completed in writing or orally • An oral Marketing Survey is being done at my theatre right now to see what the results of our marketing campaign have been. Seems good – almost all the seats are sold for every show! • Now, the purpose of the survey is to figure out which of our marketing strategies worked well, and ones that didn’t seem to yield much response.

Surveys – Primary Data • Surveys can be conducted in person, on the phone, through the mail or on the Internet • Most surveys have closed-ended questions that ask respondents to select one answer from two or more choices • Yes/No, Agree/Disagree, Select a, b, c, or d, Rate on a Scale of 1 to 10. • Easy to answer, easy to score

Surveys – Primary Data • People typically dislike spending a lot of time answering questions • If the questions are too challenging or too personal, the respondent may feel uncomfortable and refuse to answer or make up an answer.

Surveys – Primary Data • Sometimes surveys will use Open-Ended Questions that allow respondents to develop their own answers • Takes longer to analyze, and respondents may resist because they take more time to answer • Example: • What do you like most about this flavour of soft drink? • List your top three soft-drink flavours.

Surveys – Primary Data • Researchers using a survey to collect data from a target market must survey a random sample, thereby giving every member of the target-market population the same chance of being selected as any other member • Otherwise survey results will not accurately represent the target market, and results will be misleading • A sample that does not accurately represent the target population is biased.

Surveys – Primary Data • Example: • A researcher wants to determine the soft-drink flavour preferences of 15-25 year olds in Toronto • Only selects one high school in downtown Toronto as the representative sample to do surveys at • Anyone who doesn’t attend that school does not have the opportunity to do the survey • Does not include suburban residents, or anyone older than 18, but does include 13-14 year olds • Researchers could not use the results from such a biased survey.

Observation – Primary Data • Researchers who use observation collect information by recording the actions of the person being observed without interacting or communicating with that person. • The purpose is to see how people actually behave, rather than have them recall or predict their responses

Observation – Primary Data • Can be more accurate and less biased than surveys • Also more expensive • Less effective in large groups because it is difficult to observe a large number of participants at one time, and individuals tend to respond to the action of others. This results in bias.

Observation – Primary Data • Cameras, audio, one-way mirrors, security camera • Should not be obvious to the participant

Focus-Group Interviews – Primary Data • Focus Group: Small group of people brought together to discuss a particular product or problem • Combines the features of an interview with the observation method of collecting data • Participants are carefully selected to represent a larger, very specific target market

Focus-Group Interviews – Primary Data • The focus group’s moderator should be skilled in asking questions that will guide the discussion and help participants generate ideas • Each respondent should understand the questions being asked, be encouraged to respond honestly and not be directed to a single answer

Focus-Group Interviews – Primary Data • Observers may watch the focus group during the interview to detect any behavioural traits of the participants that could be included in the final report.

Types of Marketing Research • Remember the Marketing Concept? • Every business or organization must consider both its potential customers and its competitors in every important business decision • Marketing Research is essential to implementing the marketing concept

Consumer Research • Consumer research consists of all the efforts marketers use to determine people’s buying behaviour.

Consumer Research – Awareness, Attitude and Usage Studies • Awareness, Attitude and Usage Studies (AAU), measure consumers’ awareness of products as well as their attitude toward and usage of those products • To measure unaided awareness, researchers as respondents to list all the brands, companies or product names that they can think of • The researcher measures aided awareness by giving the respondent a list of product names and asking them to identify which names they have heard of, but forgot to list

Consumer Research – Awareness, Attitude and Usage Studies • Consumer attitudes toward the brand being tested can help determine the consumers’ opinions regarding the brand’s strengths and perceived weaknesses

Consumer Research – Awareness, Attitude and Usage Studies • AAU research also studies usage patterns to develop consumer profiles of the heavy, medium/light user or non-user • Also look at demographic, geographic and psychogrphic data which are used to determine connections among certain subgroups and product usage.

Consumer Research – Consumer Segmentation Analysis • Used to group potential customers into target markets based on shared demographic, geographic, or psychographic characteristics (or a combination of these). • Helps businesses divide the market into groups of customers who have similar viewpoints

Consumer Research – Market Dimension Analysis • Researches the main issues concerning the product that influence a particular consumer segment • For example: • The target segment for Barq’s Root Beer (16-18 year old males) identified ‘bold taste,’ ‘fun’ and ‘unpredictable image’ as the main issues that have an effect on their decision to purchase root beer. Barq’s marketing department developed the slogan “Barq’s has Bite” and created the quirky, funny Barq’s advertising based on the dimension analysis of this segment.

Consumer Research – Product Research • Examines each detail of the product or service and analyzes its potential impact on the market • Looks at variables like colour, package, flavour, size, texture, scent, design and sound • If surveys show that consumers prefer an easy-to-open can, then researchers pass that information along to the design team to research feasibility • Also will ask: “Will consumers see the improvement as worth the extra cost?” “Will the new feature prompt consumers to change brands?”

Consumer Research – Media Research • Attempts to segment consumers based on which newspapers and magazines they read, which television programs they watch, which method of transportation they use, which radio stations they listen to and which Internet sites they visit • The results of this research is to provide marketers with the ability to find and communicate with their target markets • Also tells the media companies the size of their audience, to help price advertising space or time

Consumer Research – Consumer Tracking Devices • Determine when & where consumers shop, what they buy and their behaviour while shopping • Sensors on shopping carts, infrared light beams, bar code scanners, and other computer devices gather this information without the consumer’s knowledge

Consumer Research – Motivation Research • Psychological research into the buying behaviour of consumers • Looks at the emotional and rational motives that influence a consumer’s buying decision.

Consumer Research – Consumer Satisfaction Studies • Researchers use customer feedback cards, follow up interviews, websites, and suggestion boxes to measure the level of customer satisfaction Results of these studies can identify areas for new product development and competitive differentiation

Consumer Research – Advertising Research • Provides information on how to effectively convey a product message to potential consumers • Advertising concepts often tested in focus groups before the advertising company commits to a major media buy

Consumer Research – Advertising Research • Sales promotion methods can be used to measure advertising effectiveness • Measure effectiveness by studying the volume of responses • For Example: How many enter a contest using an official entry form? How many call a number provided by a television commercial? • Businesses often ask consumers (whey they make a purchase), where they saw the product or service advertised.

Competitive Research • Marketers use competitive research to determine what other products are competing with their products as well as the ways in which they are competing.

Competitive Research – Competitive Market Analysis • Uses a variety of tools to compare all of the products available in a particular market category • Example: • A cat food manufacturer wants to know who their competitors are in the overall cat food market category • Also want to know which brands of moist and dry food are available, foods designed for kittens, adult cats and senior cats, which brands are packaged in traditional cans or bags or containers, which brands have easy to open lids, which are resalable, and which are premium and economy brands • If they wanted to package a premium moist cat food for kittens in a resealable plastic pouch would use a competitive market analysis report to determine whether competitors were already in that specific competitive segment and if there were competitors, how strong they were.

Competitive Research – Competitive Intelligence • Businesses will hire researchers to prepare a competitive intelligence file on each of their competitors • Researchers gather all types of hard data on each company • Web searches • Business and trade magazine articles about the company • Annual corporate reports • Corporate profiles prepared by companies • Samples of each competitor’s advertising and any public relations material, sales promotions and publicity

Competitive Research – Pricing Research • Looks at what a company can charge consumers for a product • Can the company sell the product for a competitive price and still make a profit?

Marketing Research