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| a research technique that manipulates factors (called treatments, or independent variables) to understand if the factor (e.g., price, time of day, discount rate) affect a dependent (outcome) variable (e.g., sales). Ex: How much do sales zip code ##### change as the product is discounted? |
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| an exploratory research technique which consists of a one-on-one discussion between a consumer and a researcher. The strength is that the questions can be free-flowing and in-depth. |
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| a non-probability sample composed of people that are conveniently available when and where the data is being collected. |
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| a type of descriptive research technique that is used to gather primary data. It involves the systematic collection of quantitative information at one point in time, rather than over time. |
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| custom (primary) research |
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Primary research is custom-designed and conducted for a single firm (for a fee) to provide specific information that a managers needs about their customers or ??.
This is different than secondary research where a manager can more inexpensively buy a more generic industry report. Primary research is more expensive but can yield important insights which can reduce marketers uncertainty about their target market or product innovations. |
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| a sophisticated data analysis technique that is used to make knowledge discoveries in a mountain of data. The business intelligence DM software can automatically locate patterns (key influencers, or clusters) in large amounts of data. |
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| a type of research that probes systematically into a problem (the research question) and bases its conclusions on large numbers of observations. So first you do some exploratory research then you follow it up with some more formal descriptive research. |
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| a research technique that tests pre-specified relationships among variables in a controlled environment. For example consumer reactions to different software interfaces are examined to discover which screen interface is received best (as measured in consumer satisfaction or productivity). Experiments are a type of causal research where a factor is manipulated (aka a treatment is administered) and the researchers can measure any effects on an important outcome variable. Experiments are most excellent and useful to isolate and explore the effect of factors. If for example sales are significantly increased when a new product packaging is introduced in a test market (holding all other factors constant) then the marketing manager can confidently believe that the change in sales is a result of the packaging. Researchers use lab (ex: at corporate headquarters or a university) or field experiments (ex: in a store). |
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| a research technique that marketers use to generate insights for future more rigorous studies (often descriptive experimental, survey or field research follows exploratory research-- for example a focus group, limited # of interviews. Exploratory studies are quick, easy and low cost. |
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| a detailed report based on observations of people (target market?) in their own homes or communities, and how they use the product or product category in question. Researchers live with the subjects - ex: attending monster truck shows to observe |
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| A group of similar consumers in the same target market (based on demographics and/or psychographics) is paid to meet and discuss a vendor's product or service. The discussion is centered around the 4P's and consumer perceptions, evaluations and opinions of a product or service. A trained facilitator leads the discussion. |
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| a research technique that tracks the responses of the same sample of respondents over time (ex: a month). For example a researcher can survey a focus group's experience of an automobile or vitamin drink over time. |
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| a data gathering technique where researchers talk to shoppers in shopping or public areas, and ask them to fill out a survey, take a taste test, or ??? |
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| marketing decision support system |
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| the data and interactive analysis software that allow managers to conduct analyses and create the information they need from mountains of transaction data (MDSS's use data mining). |
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| marketing information system |
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The people, data software and equiptment provide regular reports that marketing managers need to spot trends, problem areas, successes.
For ex: how do you know if your new promotional campaign has a high ROI? Analyze the data using a marketing info system
"A marketing information system is a continuing and interacting structure of people, equipment and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute pertinent, timely and accurate information for use by marketing decision makers to improve their marketing planning, implementation, and control". The system is typically computer based. |
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| a method by which marketers get general information about everyday happenings in the marketing environment (including information about the economy, pop trends, population growth and migrations, competitors, etc.). Much of the activity includes gaining information about competitors, either through blogs, website content, mystery shopping, or industrial espionage. The findings are stored in the marketing information system. |
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The process of collecting, analyzing, and interpreting information about customers, competitors, and the business environment in order to improve marketing effectiveness. To reduce risk marketers perform consumer-based research (often just talk to or survey consumers in the target market).
To better understand their environment and target market, firm's perform marketing research and either ask questions (survey, or focus group) manipulate factors (causal experimental research, field research) or observe (case studies, ethnography).
The idea is to be proactive and use the results of mkt res. to make business decisions based on facts, rather than opinions. |
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| Research that is conducted to gather new data that helps in making a specific decision. Data can be either gathered by the researcher or firms can hire a marketing research companies to perform surveys etc. and gather it for you. General types of primary research are exploratory, descriptive and causal. |
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| (non)probability sampling |
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in a non-probability sample the researcher just uses their personal judgment when selecting respondents, this can be less scientific which causes representativeness problems.
In probability sampling a more scientific rigorous approach is used, and every member of the population has a chance of being included. |
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| A test that marketers use to explore people's underlying feelings about a product; which especially appropriate when consumers are unable or unwilling to express their true reactions (ex. rorschach test). Ex: sentence completion, role playing, word association, draw me a picture of...tell me a story about...what are these people in this picture doing or talking about? |
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| The extent to which research measurements are free of errors - and are understood by the research (often survey) respondents. (Are the survey items asked correctly? (using proper and understandable language). Do the survey questions correctly and accurately ask tap consumer opinions regarding the phenomenon in question? (or are the questions leading, or have double-meanings?) Example of a bad survey question: "How much do you hate Wal-mart?" |
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| representativeness (generalizability) |
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| the extent to which consumers in a study are similar to (represent) a larger group (the target market) in which the organization has an interest. Usually the results from a sample are only representative of other people in the same sampling population. |
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| a written research plan that specifies what information marketers will collect in a research study and what type of study they will do. Good research is well-planned. |
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| the process of selecting respondents for a study. The safest is random sampling, however any probability sampling technique is preferred. sampling techniques are important so that you can put some faith in the survey findings, and make a more informed decision. |
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| As opposed to primary research that is collected for a specific purpose, secondary research reuses the data from primary research - it was collected for some prior purpose other that the current research question. Usually researchers use financial or economic data or purchase secondary data from government databases (ex: DMV or data about real estate transactions). |
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| Expensive research reports by firms that collect data and sell the results in the form of reports - e.g. Gartner Reports, Forrester Research, etc. Examples are industry reports (ex: current technologies in banking), country reports industry outlook (future medical innovations), & product category reports. |
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| research method that uses traces of evidence to analyze consumer behavior (rather than using a survey form). Some examples are looking at a person's garbage, looking at e-commerce site's web server logs, refrigerator or pantry checks. |
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| the extent to which research method (and survey questions) actually measure what it was intended to measure. This s/b decided before the data is collected, but there are statistical techniques that analyze the data after it is collected. (Did the researchers survey questions shed insight on the overall research question?) |
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