Problem Definition and The Marketing Research Process

CHAPTER 2

The Marketing Research Process

1. Identifying & Formulating the Research Problem

2. Creating the research design

3. Choosing the research method

4. Selecting the Sampling procedure

5. Data collection

8. Follow-up

7. Report writing &presentation

6. Data analysis

Why?

What?

How?

Overview of the Research Process (alt.)1. Establish need for information

2. detail research objectives and information needs – “Why is this project being conducted?” and "What specific information is required to attain the objectives?"

3. design research and data sources – information to collect, sources of data, and plan guiding data collection and analysis

4. design data-collection procedure – e.g., questionnaire

5. design sample – define population, sample-selection method, and the sample size

6. collect data

7. process and code data

8. analyze data

9. present results – oral presentation and/or written report

Step 1: Define the problem

Objectives Vs. problems

Management decision problem vs. marketing research problem?

Problem or Symptom?

THE CASE OF CHERRY BLOSSOM

Cherry Blossom sales are dropping.Kiwi is the main competitor.Salespeople tell me that Kiwi is gaining

share.LET’S KILL KIWI!!!

what is likely to happen with such decisions?$20 million ad campaign

Price promotionsSix months later - NO JOB!!

How to define the decision problem?

DECION MAKING ISSUES:Cherry Blossom shoe polish is losing sales!

BEWARE OF FRAMING Cherry’s market share is dropping….because Kiwi is

taking away market share WHAT ELSE COULD BE HAPPENING?

ANALYSIS. ANALYSIS. ANALYSIS!

Is the market shrinking?Are there other new competitors?Are there different needs?

-consumers are wearing other kinds of non-leather shoe

-attitudes towards shoe polishing is declining-consumers have less time to polish their

shoes

Problem Definition: Cherry Blossom Shoe Polish is losing sales due to three important trends:

Identifying & Formulating the Identifying & Formulating the Research ProblemResearch Problem

Identifying & Formulating the Identifying & Formulating the Research ProblemResearch Problem

Packaging

Creating the Research Design

Research DesignExploratory Study (Montblanc)

Seeking insight into the general nature of the problem.Descriptive Study

Description of the environment.Causal Study

Whether one variable causes the other.

HypothesesA conjecture; a possible answer to the research question

Conducting Exploratory Research

What is Exploratory Research?

Seeking insight into the general nature of the problem

Qualitative Research; Observation, Mystery shopping, Focus groups, In-depth interviewing, Garbology.

NO hypothesis or vague hypothesis

Descriptive Research (Example)Describe the characteristics of relevant

groupsInternet usersWho buys our products?Where do they buy it?

Causal StudiesVariableDependent variableIndependent variableThree issues for causal studies

Temporal sequence. Attitude Behavior.Concomitant variationSpurious association

What is this type of research?

Who are our users?Will an increase in service staff help

profitability?What is the demographic profile of our

target market?

What is this type of research?

What are the reasons for falling sales?Will a change in price improve loyalty?

Choosing a Method of Research

SurveyMailTelephoneIntercept

ObservationMonitors respondents actions without direct interaction

Experiments

Sampling ProcedureProbability vs. Non-probability sampling

Population Vs. Sample

www.cnn.com

The other steps……….

Regardless of which presidential candidate you now support, who do you think won the debate?  

NEWSWEEK PollGeorge W. Bush 19% John Kerry 61% No winner/about even 16%Don't know 4% 

The NEWSWEEK poll was conducted by Princeton Survey Research Associates, which interviewed 1,013 registered voters by telephone on Sept. 30-Oct. 2. The margin of error is plus or minus 4 percentage points.

2-5 Errors in Marketing Research

sampling errors unavoidable inaccuracy stemming from using

samples to estimate quantities in the population

equals difference between the sample value and the true underlying population value

non-sampling errors – errors that occur in the research process over and above the sampling errorinadvertent mistakesdeliberate deceptions

Two main types of errors in marketing research:

2-5c Types of Non-Sampling Errors

faulty problem definition – solving the wrong problemincorrect population definition – wrong samplesampling frame not representative of the population

e.g., phone book under-represents stock buyersnon-response errors – refusals and not at homepoor questionnaire design

e.g., biased or misleading questionmeasurement error – scale doesn’t match construct

of interestimproper causal inferences – assigning cause

inappropriately