Introduction to Marketing Research

MAR 6648: Marketing ResearchJanuary 4, 2010

Welcome!

• Today’s agenda:– Introduce ourselves!– Go over the syllabus– Get our feet wet

So what is Marketing Research?• A vague, official definition:– “Marketing Research is the function that links the

consumer, customer, and public to the marketer through information”

• Basically, figuring out what consumers want and expect from your company

• This information is used to:– Identify and define marketing opportunities and

problems– Generate, refine, and evaluate marketing actions– Monitor marketing performance

The Marketing Research Industry

• A $12 billion industry• Biggest marketing research company:– The Nielsen Company ($5B)—they do more than

TV

• Large CPG companies have internal research departments

• Marketing Research skills are always in high demand by organizations

Marketers and Marketing Researchers

CompetitionCompetitionCustomersCustomers Company & environmentCompany &

environment CustomersCustomers CompetitionCompetition Company & environmentCompany &

environment

Marketing Researche

r

Marketing Researche

r

Marketing Decision Maker

Marketing Decision Maker

Marketing Decision

Maker/Research

Marketing Decision

Maker/Research

Traditional Emerging

The Marketing Planning Process

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Strategy

Marketing Program

Marketing Program EvaluationEvaluation

Market Situation Analysis

Market Situation Analysis

Product AnalysisProduct Analysis

Assess Opportunities &

Threats

Assess Opportunities &

ThreatsTargetingTargeting

SegmentationSegmentation

PositioningPositioning

Marketing MixMarketing Mix Plan Refinement

Plan Refinement

Customer Analysis

Customer Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Competitor Analysis

Company Analysis

Company Analysis

Price AnalysisPrice Analysis

Promotion Analysis

Promotion Analysis

Distribution Analysis

Distribution Analysis

Performance Monitoring

Performance Monitoring

Customer SatisfactionCustomer

Satisfaction

Decision

Analysis & Research

Qualitative Research

• Usually done to get a feel for a problem before really digging in analytically– Projective techniques– Individual Interviews– Focus groups and group interviews– Ethnographic consumer research

Quantitative Research

• More systematic investigation of quantitative properties and their relationships– Descriptive research• Syndicated data sources• Surveys and attitude measurement• Statistical techniques

– Causal research• Experimentation

Technology and Marketing Research

• New technology means new techniques• Some “traditional” approaches– Focus groups– Design questionnaires and sample a set of your

customers– Recall tests– Phone interviews

Technology and Marketing Research

• Some modern approaches– Use customer databases to analyze customer

behavior• Frequent shopper databases• Direct Mail Databases

– Monitor web discussion forums– Monitor social networks, blogs, etc.

Technology and Marketing Research

• Some really modern approaches– Forecasting• Track downloads and other activity on peer-to-peer

file-sharing networks• Prediction markets

– Live tracking of customer behavior• TiVo• RFID

The Four Ps

• Product

• Price

• Place

• Promotion

Some key lessons to anticipate• Modern marketing research is much more than

focus groups!• Marketing research is an integral part of the

Marketing Planning Process• The best managers use marketing research as a

key tool in decision making• The future/the present: Marketing research and

marketing will be intertwined• Maybe the most important class you’ll take in

marketing!

What this class will do (I hope!)

• Convince you that Marketing Research is fun, cool, and invaluable

• Add a variety of Marketing Research techniques to your toolbox

• Help you identify, think through, and solve marketing problems

Summary

• Marketing Research is vital to the success of any firm

• There are many tools in a Marketing Researcher’s toolbox—let’s add to them!

• Welcome to class!