Chapter 32

Marketing Research

What is Marketing Research?

Marketing Research – involves the systematic gathering, and analyzing of information about problems related to marketing goods and services.

Goal of Marketing Research

Obtain information about:PreferencesOpinionHabitsTrendsAnd plans of potential customers.

Research can minimize potential losses when introducing a new product.

Why is Research Important?

Research helps answer the following questionsWhat products should be produced?Where should the products be sold?How will the products be promoted?At what price will the products sell?

A few years a go McDonalds made a major change to their packaging in response to Marketing Research results.

Marketing Information Systems

A Marketing Information System – is a set of procedures and methods that regularly generates, stores, analyzes, and distributes marketing information. Asking your zip code at check out

helps build a the database.

Marketing Databases

Data can be collected using barcode scanners at point-of-sale terminals.Databases – are created with this data and are then sold to a variety of sources American Express sells all types of

information to other companies about its customers.

Privacy Invasion

Types of Marketing Research

Advertising ResearchProduct ResearchMarket ResearchSales Research

Advertising ResearchAdvertising Research focuses on the advertising message and the media. Testing the Advertising Message

– consumer panels are set up to get people’s reactions to an advertisement.

Researching the Medium – Testing whether people use a particular media over another (For example: T.V. vs Magazine)

Product Research

Product Research – evaluates product design and acceptance, competitive products, package design and product usage. Product Samples with coupons in the

mail. Test Marketing

Market Research

Customer Analysis – is the study of consumer behavior. Questionnaires and Interviews are used to generate this information.Market Analysis – the study of behavior of a consumer market. Trends

Sales ResearchSales Research – is the study of sales data. Sales Forecasting – when the future

sales of the product are estimated. Economic Forecasting – is an attemptto predict the future economic conditions of a city, region, country or the world.

Limitations of Marketing Research

Funding for ResearchTimeCustomers in a test situation might behave differently than when they are acting in the real-world.