Ch 7 - Marketing Research: From Customer Insights to Actions Flashcards
Identify the reason for conducting marketing research.
To be successful, products must meet the wants and needs of potential customers. So marketing research reduces risk by providing the vital information to help marketing managers understand those wants and needs and translate them into marketing actions.
Describe the five-step marketing research approach that leads to marketing actions.
Marketing researchers engage in a five-step decision-making process to collect information that will improve marketing decisions. The first step is to define the problem, which requires setting the research objectives and identifying possible marketing actions. The second step is to develop the research plan, which involves specifying the constraints, identifying data needed for marketing decisions, and determining how to collect the data. The third step is to collect the relevant information, which includes considering pertinent secondary data (both internal and external) and primary data (by observing and questioning consumers) as well as using information technology and data mining to trigger marketing actions. The fourth step is to develop findings from the marketing research data collected. This involves analyzing the data and presenting the findings of the research. The fifth and last step is to take marketing actions, which involves making and implementing the action recommendations.
Explain how marketing uses secondary and primary data.
Secondary data have already been recorded prior to the start of the project and consist of two parts: (a) internal secondary data, which originate from within the organization, such as sales reports and customer comments, and (b) external secondary data, which are created by other organizations, such as the U.S. Census Bureau (which provides data on the country’s population, manufacturers, retailers, and so on) or business and trade publications (which provide data on industry trends, market size, etc.). Primary data are collected specifically for the project and are obtained by either observing or questioning people.
Discuss the uses of observations, questionnaires, panels, experiments, and newer data collection methods.
Marketing researchers observe people in various ways, such as electronically using Nielsen people meters to measure TV viewing behavior or personally using mystery shoppers or ethnographic techniques. A recent electronic innovation is neuromarketing—using high-tech brain scanning to record the responses of a consumer’s brain to marketing stimuli like packages or TV ads. Questionnaires involve asking people questions (a) in person using interviews or focus groups or (b) via a questionnaire using a telephone, fax, print, e-mail, or Internet survey. Panels involve a sample of consumers or stores that are repeatedly measured through time to see if their behaviors change. Experiments, such as test markets, involve measuring the effect of marketing variables such as price or advertising on sales. Collecting data from social networks like Facebook or Twitter is increasingly important because users can share their opinions about products and services with countless “friends” around the globe.
Explain how information technology and data mining lead to marketing actions.
Today’s marketing managers are often overloaded with data—from internal sales and customer data to external data on TV viewing habits or grocery purchases from the scanner data at checkout counters. Information technology enables this massive amount of marketing data to be stored, accessed, and processed. The resulting databases can be queried using data mining to find statistical relationships useful for marketing decisions and actions.
Describe three approaches to developing a company’s sales forecast.
One approach uses the subjective judgments of the decision maker, such as direct or lost-horse forecasts. A direct forecast involves estimating the value to be forecast without any intervening steps. A lost-horse forecast starts with the last known value of the item being forecast, and then lists the factors that could affect the forecast, assesses whether they have a positive or negative impact, and makes the final forecast. Surveys of knowledgeable groups, a second method, involve obtaining information such as the intentions of potential buyers or estimates provided by the salesforce. Statistical methods involving extending a pattern observed in past data into the future are a third approach. The best-known statistical method is linear trend extrapolation.
constraints
In a decision, the restrictions placed on potential solutions to a problem.
data
The facts and figures related to the problem that are divided into two main parts: secondary data and primary data.
information technology
Involves operating computer networks that can store and process data.
marketing research
The process of defining a marketing problem and opportunity, systematically collecting and analyzing information, and recommending actions.
measures of success
Criteria or standards used in evaluating proposed solutions to the problem.
observational data
Facts and figures obtained by watching, either mechanically or in person, how people actually behave.
primary data
Facts and figures that are newly collected for the project.
questionnaire data
Facts and figures obtained by asking people about their attitudes, awareness, intentions, and behaviors.
sales forecast
The total sales of a product that a firm expects to sell during a specified time period under specified environmental conditions and its own marketing efforts.
