Session 5 (17.08.10)

Focus group discussion

 

• is the process of obtaining possible ideas or solution
• to a mktg. problem
• from a group of respondents
• by discussing it.

• Each participant in a group of five to nine or more is encouraged to express views in each topic and to elaborate on or react to the views of the other participants.
• Advantage of focus-group discussion is that it offers participants more stimulation than an interview.

Types of Focus-Groups

 

There are three types of focus groups:

1. Exploratory focus groups
2. Clinical focus groups
3. experiencing focus groups

Exploratory Focus Group

 

• Commonly used at the exploratory phase of the mkt. research process to aid in defining the problem precisely.
• It can also be used as pilot testing
• Exploratory groups can be used to generate hypotheses for testing or concepts for future research.

Clinical Focus Groups

 

• Involves qualitative research in its most scientific form
• The research is conducted as a scientific endeavor.
• Clinical groups require a moderator with expertise in psychology and sociology.
• Findings are difficult to validate and hence are less popular.

Experiencing Focus Groups

 

• Allows the researcher to experience the emotional framework in which the product is being used.

Applications of Focus Groups

 

Focus groups can be used to address substantive issues such as:

 

• Understanding consumers’ perceptions, preferences and behavior concerning a product category.
• Obtaining impressions of new product concepts.
• Generating new ideas about older products
• Developing creative concepts and copy material for advertisements
• Securing price impressions
• Obtaining preliminary consumer reaction to specific mktg. programs

 Methodological applications of focus groups include:

• Defining a problem more precisely
• Generating alternative courses of action
• Developing an approach to a problem
• Obtaining information helpful in structuring consumer questionnaires
• Generating hypotheses that can be tested quantitatively
• Interpreting previously obtained quantitative results.

Depth Interviews

• Depth interviews are another method of obtaining qualitative data.
• It is an unstructured, direct, personal interview in which a single respondent is probed by a highly skilled interviewer to uncover underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, and feelings on a topic.

Techniques of depth interviews

1. Laddering
2. Hidden issue questioning
3. Symbolic analysis.

Laddering

• In laddering, line of questioning proceeds from product characteristics to user characteristics.
• This allows the researcher to tap into the consumers’ network of meanings.
• It provides a way to probe into consumers’ deep underlying psychological and emotional reasons that affect their purchasing decisions.

Hidden issue questioning
A type of depth interview that attempts to locate personal sore spots related to deeply felt personal concerns.


Symbolic Analysis
A technique for conducting depth interviews in which the symbolic meaning of objects is analyzed by comparing them with opposites.


Applications of depth interviews

• Depth interviews can be effectively employed in special problem situations, such as those requiring:
• Detailed probing of respondent
• Discussion of confidential, sensitive, or embarrassing topics (personal finances etc)
• Situations where strong social norms exists and the respondents may be easily swayed by group response.
• Detailed understanding of complicated behavior
• Interviews with professional people
• Interviews with competitors, who are unlikely to reveal the information in a group setting
• Situations where the product consumption experience is sensory in nature, affecting mood states and emotions.

Projective techniques

• They attempt to disguise the purpose of the research.
• It is an unstructured, indirect form of questioning that encourages respondents to project their underlying motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feeling regarding the issues of concern.
• In projective techniques, respondents are asked to interpret the behavior of others rather than describe their own behavior.
• It is assumed that while interpreting the behavior of others, respondents indirectly project their own motivations, beliefs, attitudes, or feelings into the situation.

Projective techniques are classified as:

• Association techniques
• Completion techniques
• Sentence completion
• Story completion
• Construction techniques
• Picture response
• Cartoon tests
• Expressive techniques
• Role playing
• Third person technique

Session 4 (12.08.10)

Research Design

Research design is a framework or detailed blueprint used to guide a research study toward its objective.

It details the procedures necessary for obtaining the information needed to structure or solve mktg. research problems.

A good research design will ensure that the mktg. research project is conducted effectively and efficiently.

A research design involves the following components, or tasks:

Research Design can be classified as given in below chart:

Differences between Exploratory and Conclusive Research

Exploratory Research

Objective of exploratory research is to explore or search through a problem or situation to provide insights and understanding.


Exploratory research can be used in the following situations:

• Exploratory research is meaningful in any situation where the researcher does not have enough understanding to proceed with the research project.
• This type of research rarely involves structured questionnaires, large samples and probability sampling plans.
• Researchers are alert to new ideas and insights as they proceed.
• Once a new idea or insight is discovered, they may redirect their exploration in that direction.
• That new direction is perceived until its possibilities are exhausted or another direction is found.
• Hence, the focus of the investigation may shift constantly as new insights are discovered.

Exploratory research can be conducted with the help of:

1. Survey of experts
2. Pilot surveys
3. Secondary data analyzed in qualitative way
4. Qualitative research

Descriptive Research

Objective of descriptive research is to describe something—usually mkt. characteristics or functions.

Different reasons for conducting a descriptive research can be any of the following:

• Descriptive research assumes that researcher has much prior knowledge about the problem situation.
• A major difference between exploratory and descriptive research is that descriptive research is characterized by the prior formulation of specific hypotheses.
• Hence the information needed is clearly defined.
• Descriptive research is preplanned and structured.
• It is based on large representative samples
• Formal research design specifies the methods for selecting the information sources and for data collection.
• Descriptive design requires clear specification of the who, what, when, where, why, and way (6 Ws) of the research

Cross-sectional designs

• It is the most frequently used descriptive design in mktg. research.
• It involves the collection of information from any given sample of population elements only once.

Cross-sectional designs can be classified as:

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Longitudinal Designs

• In longitudinal designs, a fixed sample (or samples) of population elements is measured repeatedly on the same variables.
• It differs from cross-sectional design in that the sample or samples remain the same over time.
• The same people are studied over time and the same variables are measured.
• Sometimes, the term panel is used interchangeably with the term longitudinal design.
• A panel consists of a sample of respondents , generally households that have agreed to provide information at specified intervals over an extended period
• Syndicated firms maintain panels and panel members are compensated for their participation with gifts, coupons, information or cash.

Relative advantages and disadvantages of Longitudinal and cross-sectional designs

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Causal Research

• Causal research is used to obtain evidence of cause-and-effect (causal) relationships.
• Causal research is appropriate for the following purposes:
• To understand which variables are the cause (independent variables) and which variables are the effect (dependent variables) of a phenomenon.
• To determine the nature of relationship between the causal variables and the effect to be predicted.
• Descriptive research can determine the degree of association between variables, but it is not examining the causal relationships.
• Such an examination requires a causal design, in which the causal or independent variables are manipulated in a relatively controlled environment (experimentation).
• The main method of causal research is experimentation.

Comparison of Basic Research Design

Session 3 (10.08.10)

Data Sources


• There are two types of data
–  Primary Data
– Secondary Data

• Research designer has a wide variety of methods for data collection. He may use it singly or in combination.

• Secondary Data are already available, as they were collected for some purpose other than solving the present problem.

• Primary Data are collected especially to address a specific research objective.

• A variety of methods, ranging from qualitative research to surveys to experiments, may be employed.

Primary Data


• Primary Data are originated by a researcher for the specific purpose of addressing for the problem at hand.
• Collection of primary data involves all the steps of the marketing research process.
• Obtaining primary data can be expensive and time consuming.

Secondary Data


• Secondary data is the information that has already been collected for some other purpose (other than the problem at hand). These data can be located quickly and inexpensively.

 Comparison of Primary and Secondary Data

 Advantages of secondary data

1. 
   
   Secondary data are easily accessible.
2. 
   
   Relatively inexpensive
3. 
   
   Quickly obtained
4. 
   
   Secondary data helps you:
1. 
   
   Identify the problem
2. 
   
   Better define the problem
3. 
   
   Develop an approach to the problem
4. 
   
   Formulate an appropriate research design
5. 
   
   Answer certain research questions and test some hypothesis
6. 
   
   Interpret primary data more insightfully.

Disadvantages of secondary data

1. Collected for purposes other than the problem at hand, their usefulness to the current problem may be limited in several important ways, including relevance and accuracy.
2. The objectives, nature and methods used to collect the secondary data may not be appropriate to the present situation.
3. Secondary data may be lacking in accuracy
4. They may not be completely current or dependable.

Uses of Secondary Data

1. May actually provide enough information to resolve the problem being investigated
2. Can be a valuable source of new ideas that can be explored later through primary research.
3. Secondary data is prerequisite to collecting primary data. It helps to define the problem and formulate hypotheses about its solution.
4. Provides better understanding of the problem.
5. Secondary data is of use in the collection of primary data. Examining the methodology and techniques employed by other investigators in similar studies may be useful in planning the present one.
6. Helps to define the population, select the sample in primary information collection, and define the parameters of primary research.
7. Also serve as reference base against which to compare the validity and accuracy of primary data.

 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 
Limitations of secondary data

1. It is collected for some other purpose, hence may not be relevant for the problem on hand.
2. No control over data collection
3. May not be very accurate
4. May not be reported in the required form
5. May be outdated
6. May not meet data requirements
7. A no. of assumptions have to be made.

Session 2

• Marketing research is again can be classfied as:

1.    Primary Research &
2.    Secondary Research.

• It has a purpose and it includes different sampling methods.
• There are 2 sources of information for Secondary Research:
• Internal Sources
• External Sources

• Primary research can be conducted by using any or combination of the following tools.
• Questionnaires
• Focus Groups
• User Groups
• Postal Surveys
• Telephone Surveys
• Customer Interviews
• Test Markets
• Technology-Internet feedback

• Primary Research provides you the first hand information, but it is expensive to collect, analyse and evaluate the information.
• It can be highly focussed and relevant to the topic of concern.
• But at the same time, due care needs to be taken with the approach and methodology to ensure the accuracy.
• Type of question that are asked in primary research are closed ended questions or open ended questions.
• Closed ended questions provides limited information whereas open ended questions useful information but it is difficult to analyse.

• Quantitative and Qualitative Information:
• Quantitative – based on numbers – 32% of employees of an organization are dis-satisfied with their job profile. - doesn’t tell you why, when, how 
• Qualitative – more detail – tells you why, when and how!

Research can be categorized into:

• Basic Research
• Applied Research

Example of Basic Research:

• Data gathered by Indian Census (facts gathered) is available for use by others, including marketers.
• A study conducted by a researcher to find out the factors resulting in the satisfaction of salesperson and their turnover. Results were published in an article available to anyone.

Example of Applied Research:

• IBMs entry into personal computers lagged that of the innovators like Apple, and may have been IBM’s biggest challenge ever. They conducted the study to find out the market segment that strategically is the best. And later they proved, when the new PC captured major market share, to be right.
• This study is not published anywhere and the data is not accessible by anyone except few managers of IBM.

Overview of Research Process:
Step 1: Problem Definition

• Determine or define the problem or opportunity that is faced.
• Decision alternatives
• Research Users

Step 2: Establish Research Objectives

• Research questions
• Hypothesis
• Boundaries of Study

Step 3:Estimate the value of information whether the benefits are more than cost or not.


Step 4: Design the Research

• Choose among alternative research approaches
• Specify the sampling plan
• Design the experiment
• Design the questionnaire

Step 5: Gather and process the information


Step 6: Analyze and interpret the meaning.


Step 7: Present the findings to the decision makers.
 
 
Step 1: Problem Definition includes:

• Problems to be studied
• Which problems or opportunities are anticipated?
• What is the scope of the problems and the possible reasons?
• Decision alternatives to be evaluated
• What are the alternatives being studied?
• What are the criteria for choosing among the alternatives?
• What is the timing or importance of the decision?
• Users of the research results
• Who are the decision makers?
• Are there any covert purposes?

Step 2: Research Objective:

• Research objective is a precise statement of what information is needed.
• It has three components
• Research question
• Specifies the information the decision maker needs.
• Hypothesis
• Boundaries of study
• Hypothesis and boundaries of study make the research question as specific and precise as possible.
• Development of Hypothesis is basically to find alternative answers to research question.
• Researcher determines which of these alternative answers is correct.
• It is not always possible to develop hypothesis.
• One important role of hypothesis is to suggest variables to be included in the research design.

Research boundaries

• Indicates the scope of the research.
• It is important for the researcher to clarify the boundaries of the study.
• It also indicates the desired precision or accuracy of the results.

 

Session 1

1. Why Study Marketing Research? Several factors increase the relevance for studying marketing research. They are as follows.
• New challenges were posed by the growth of internet based services and e-commerce.
•Stakeholders now have more information at their disposal and are more resistant to marketing stimuli.
• Competition is growing and coming from unexpected sources.
• There is more government intervention geared toward protecting its various publics through restrictions on marketing tools.
• Marketing managers have more variables to consider in every decision.
• The quality of theories and models in marketing is improving.
• Greater computing power provides the potential to get more data faster, integrate that data using warehousing, understand it using data mining, and analyze it using statistical tools.
• Research methods are gaining wider acceptance in dealing with a wide range of marketing problems.
 Because of greater computing power and speed:
• Data collection cost is reduced.
• Better visualization tools are available.
• Powerful computations can be made very easily.
• More and more integration of data is possible
• Access to the information has become easy.
• Several advanced analytical tools are available for enhanced insights
• Reports can be customized as per the requirement of the client.

2. Marketing Planning Drives Marketing ResearchAn organization’s mission drives its marketing goals, strategies, and tactics and, consequently, its need for marketing decision support systems and marketing intelligence.

3.Information SourcesDecision Support Systems
Numerous elements of data are organized for retrieval and use in marketing decision making. It is stored and retrieved via Intranets and Extranets

Marketing Intelligence Systems
It includes Ongoing information collection. It focusses on events, trends in micro and macro-environments.

Explanation: When elements of data are organized for retrieval, they collectively constitute a marketing decision support system (DSS). This data is often shared over an intranet or an extranet.
An intranet is a private network that is contained within an enterprise and is not available to the public at large. It may consist of many interlinked local area networks. It typically includes connections through one or more computers to the Internet. The main purpose of an intranet is to share company information and computing resources among internal audiences.
An extranet is a private network that uses the Internet protocols and the public telecommunication system to share an organization’s information, data, or operations with external suppliers, vendors, or customers. An extranet can be viewed as the external portion of a company’s intranet.
A marketing intelligence system (MIS) is designed to provide ongoing information about events and trends in the technological, economic, political and legal, demographic, cultural, social, and competitive areas.

4.Sources of Marketing Intelligence
• Sources of government information include speeches by elected officials, recordings of public proceedings, press releases, and agency websites.
• Sources of competitive information include presentations at conferences, literature searches, press releases, syndicated industry studies, web sites, clipping services, and marketing research.
• Sources of economic information include literature searches and government reports.
• Sources of cultural and social information include syndicated studies, public opinion organizations, marketing research, and government reports.
• Sources of technological information include patent filings, web sites, syndicated industry studies, presentations at conferences, literature searches, and clipping services.
• Sources of demographic information include syndicated studies, government reports, and marketing research.

5.Marketing Research Defined….• American Marketing Association define Marketing Research as:
– The systematic gathering, recording, and analyzing of data about problems relating to the marketing of goods and services.

Marketing research is the systematic and objective
 identification,
 collection,
 analysis,
 dissemination, and
 use of information
for the purpose of improving decision making related to the
 identification and
 solution of problems and opportunities in marketing.

6.Hierarchy of Marketing Decision Makers Visionaries (on Top)
 Standardized Decision Makers (in middle)
 Intuitive Decision Makers (at bottom)

 Intuitive Decision Makers:
 Most decisions are based on past experience and instinct
 Decisions supported with secondary data searches.

 Standardized Decision Makers
• Some decisions based on business research
• Firms use tried-and-true methodologies, including other that might be appropriate.
• Limited enterprise-wide data and finding.

 Visionaries
• Every decision guided by business research
• Firms develop proprietary methodologies and are innovative in their combination of methodologies
• Enterprise-wide access to research data and findings.

7. Characteristics of Good Research
A good research should have:
 Its purpose clearly defined
 A detailed research process
 Its design thoroughly planned
 High ethical standards
 Its limitations clearly mentioned
 Adequate analysis and relevant findings
 Unambiguous presentation
 Its conclusions clearly justified
 Credentials.

8.Classification of Marketing Research
Research can be classified into:
a. Problem identification research
b.Problem solving research.

a.Problem Identification ResearchResearch undertaken to help identify problems which are not necessarily apparent on the surface and yet exist or are likely to arise in the future. Examples: market potential, market share, image, market characteristics, sales analysis, forecasting, and trends research.

b.Problem Solving ResearchResearch undertaken to help solve specific marketing problems. Examples: segmentation, product, pricing, promotion, and distribution research.

Problem Solving Research is further classified as:
SEGMENTATION RESEARCH
 Determine the basis of segmentation
 Establish market potential and responsiveness for various segments
 Select target markets
 Create lifestyle profiles: demography, media, and product image characteristics

PRODUCT RESEARCH
 Test concept
 Determine optimal product design
 Package tests
 Product modification
 Brand positioning and repositioning
 Test marketing
 Control score tests

PROMOTIONAL RESEARCH
 Optimal promotional budget
 Sales promotion relationship
 Optimal promotional mix
 Copy decisions
 Media decisions
 Creative advertising testing
 Evaluation of advertising effectiveness
 Claim substantiation

PRICING RESEARCH
 Pricing policies
 Importance of price in brand selection
 Product line pricing
 Price elasticity of demand
 Initiating and responding to price changes

DISTRIBUTION RESEARCH
Determine…
 Types of distribution
 Attitudes of channel members
 Intensity of wholesale & resale coverage
 Channel margins
 Location of retail and wholesale outlets

9.Marketing Research Suppliers & ServicesTwo types of suppliers
a.Internal suppliers
b.External suppliers
i. Full-service suppliers
1.Syndicated services
2.Standardized services
3.Customized services
4.Internet services
ii. Limited-service suppliers
1.Field services
2.Coding and data entry services
3.Analytical services
4.Data analysis services
5.Branded marketing research products