Study Guide

The big essay: Be able to discuss how marketing research relates to customer orientation, CRM, and marketing planning.
-how long does this have to be and is this on the right track? Customer orientation, CRM, and marketing planning are all related to market research because each are steps in order to market properly to your customer. Customer orientation is where you will assess your customer in finding trends in their needs/wants, and customer insight. Then find the segment between customers/consumers with the regards to needs/wants and linking the differences to existing or achievable competitive advantage. The customer relationship management (CRM) will then collect the data of the customers and serves as a model for managing the company’s interaction with the customers. You will then devise a marketing plan that will include a list of actions or outline of the organization’s marketing efforts.

Be able to design and diagram a marketing experiment, including a description of manipulations, sample/data, data sources, and any outcome measures/scales. Be able to describe how your design would account for factors affecting internal and external validity.

List conditions under which marketing research should not be used and why: know 4 of them and their implications. • The research are lacking • The research results might not be useful • The decision has already been made • Managers cannot agree on what they need to know to make a decision • The research cost outweighs the benefits of the research • You do not have the time to do the research right • The research results will likely only be shelved

The three conditions for inferring causality • Concomitant Variation: are they correlated; the degree to which a proposed cause and effect occur or vary together. Response values for x and y move together • Temporal Sequence: an appropriate causal order of event; x always comes before y • Spurious Association: a relationship between a presumed cause and effect that occurs as a result of an unexamined variable; z is not causing both x and y.

Meaning of the iceberg principle and how it relates to marketing research: you will have to describe in own words in 2-3 sentences; • The iceberg principle states that in many business problem situations the decision maker is aware of only 10% of the problem. It is thought that the problem is nothing more than an observable outcome or symptom, while 90 percent of the problem is not visible by the decision maker. The real problem is submerged below the waterline where marketer researcher’s job is supposed to know.

6 areas of importance for research methods (BBQ Blues slides, notes, and see emails)
1. Type of study
2. Study participants
3. Setting of study
4. Task performed in study
5. How questions were asked/answered
6. How the data were analyzed

Identify research problems vs. hypotheses. • Separate root problems from observable/measurable symptoms. • Determine the unit of analysis (individuals, households, geographical areas, etc.) • Determine the variables relevant to the situation o Identify independent and dependent variables o Information and specific constructs are relevant • Research statement: a remark about what the researcher wants to learn-without making a claim about what might be causing the issue at hand. • Research Hypothesis: a conjectural statement about a relationship between two or more variables that can be tested with empirical data. A claim or argument about your theory of what is causing a phenomenon to occur that you test by analyzing research data. Usually specifies how two or more measureable variables are related.

List activities of market-oriented organizations, incl. but not limited to Collect, Share, Act (CSA) • Customer Research: needs/wants • Segmentation: product, place, promotion, price • Generate market intelligence • Share the intelligence across department • Develop organizational strategy based on Intel • CSA: (collect, share, act)

Understand how to test for non-response bias in surveys • The people who are asked a few times to participate and those who participate right away are grouped differently. If the responses are different in theory we can assume that the group of people is different.

The primary purpose of marketing research • Purpose of marketing: maximize probability of an exchange • Relationships require marketers to meet customer needs • Product, place, price, and promotion

Understand the following concepts • Sample design error o Systematic error that results from an error in the sample design or sampling procedures; not prescreening • Random sampling error o Error resulting from chance variation • Measurement/instrument error o Systematic error that results from a variation between the information being sought and what is actually obtained by the measurement process. o Error that results from the design of the questionnaire or measurement instrument • Non-response bias o Error that results from a systematic difference between those who do and those who do not respond to the measurement instrument. o Certain amount of people don’t participate o The people who are asked a few times to participate and those who participate right away are grouped differently. If the responses are different in theory we can assume that the groups of people are different. • Surrogate information error o Error that results from a discrepancy between the information needed to solve a problem and that sought by the researcher • Basic vs. applied research o Applied: aimed at solving a specific problem; understanding the marketplace, determining why a strategy failed, reducing uncertainty in a decision. o Basic: aimed at expanding knowledge; understanding behavior, consumer psychology, generating theories of consumption. • Descriptive vs. diagnostic vs. predictive o Descriptive: the gathering and presenting of statements of fact

o “86% of customers are satisfied”

o Diagnostic: the explanation of data or actions

o “Store traffic low because of tree”

o Predictive: research used to predict results of a marketing decision “If we cut the tree down, store traffic will increase by 50%”

Ethical implications of using fictitious names

Know the steps in the marketing research process
Phase I: Determine the Research Problem
Step 1: Identify and clarify management’s information needs
Step 2: Specify the research questions and define the research problem
Step 3: Confirm research objectives and assess the value of the information
Phase II: Select the Appropriate Research Design
Step 4: Determine the research design and data sources
Step 5: Develop the sampling design and sample size
Step 6: Assess measurement issues and scales
Step 7: Pretest Questionnaire
Phase III: Execute the Research Design
Step 8: Collect and prepare data
Step 9: Analyze data
Step 10: Transform data structures into information
Phase IV: Communicate the Research Results
Step 11: Prepare and present final report to management

Definition of focus group • Form of qualitative research in which a group of people are asked about their perceptions, opinions, beliefs, and attitudes towards a product, service, concept, advertisement, idea, or packaging

Advantages and disadvantages of qualitative research and focus groups • Advantages: economical and timely data collection o Richness of the data o Accuracy of recording marketplace behaviors o Preliminary insights into building models and scale measurements • Disadvantages: o Lack of generalizability o Inability to distinguish small differences o Lack of reliability and validity o Difficulty finding well-trained investigators, interviewers, and observers • Disadvantage of Focus groups o Lack of generalizability; results cannot be viewed as conclusive o Opportunity for Misuse; occurs when managers yield to a temptation to generalize a few key remarks made by participants o Cost: on a cost-per-respondent basis, focus groups are extremely expensive

Characteristics of strategy oriented research questions • Researches the “how”

Concept of sample vs. population

Concept of a marketing experiment • Experiments manipulate the independent variable(s) before measuring the effect on dependent variable(s) 1. Lab experiment: research study conducted in a controlled environment in which the effect of all, or nearly all, influential but irrelevant independent variables is kept to a minimum 2. Field experiment: research study conducted in a natural setting in which the experimenter manipulates one or more independent variables under conditions controlled as carefully as the situation will permit

Be able to match descriptions of research methods (e.g., spider web) with the correct type of study/task • Word association tests; bank teller, ATM, networking, online banking • Sentence completion test; bank tellers are typically…..( respondents are asked to finish a set of incomplete sentences, often related or neutral to the topic of interest • Thematic Apperception Test: respondents are asked to write a story about one or a series of pictures they are shown for a short time. • Cartoon testing: respondents are asked to examine a picture and fill in empty speech balloons. • Spider web: A product name appears at the center of a circle drawn in the middle of a whiteboard. Participants draw other products and services, explaining how, when, and why they are used. Participants then draw lines that link these additional services to each other and to the product’s circle. • Product Box: Participants imagine that they’re selling a vendor’s product at a tradeshow, retail outlet, or public market. Participants use plain cardboard boxes, glue, paint, crayons, and other scraps and knickknacks to design a product box that they would buy. • 20/20 Vision: Several potential product features appear on a shuffled set of note cards, one feature per card. The facilitator tapes the first card face-out onto the wall and displays each of the remaining cards one at a time to the participants, asking if the feature on the card is more or less important than the feature on the wall. No two features are allowed to be of equal importance. • Me and my Shadow: Observers carefully record a participant using a product or service. Observers sit next to the participant to watch for and listen to actions, expressions, comments, and suggestions. Observers ask questions of the participant, such as “Why are you doing that,” or “what are you thinking at this moment”.

Review case summaries and notes. Be prepared for questions regarding research design/method issues from the cases
3

Other names for Independent and Dependent variables • Independent: antecedent, predictor, determinant • Dependent: consequences, outcomes, results

Concepts of mediation and moderation will appear on exam 2

Match experimental designs with the appropriate names (e.g., One Group, Pretest-Posttest, etc)

Be able to match the error types with descriptions or scenarios, examples below (5 different error types will appear on the test)

Example 1: A researcher ignores the Central Limit Theorem by assuming a sample size of only 15 people will result in a mean satisfaction score consistent with the general population.

Example 2: A researcher is seeking to investigate brand loyalty for a client and asks respondent to rank competing brand according to high quality perceptions.

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Pretest-Posttest, Control Group, with Random Sampling (EG): [R] O1 → X → O2 (CG): [R] O3 → O4

Posttest-Only, Control Group
(EG): [R] X → O1
(CG): [R] O2

One-Group, Pretest-Posttest: dangerous to do wࠀࡶࡸࡹࢸࢹ৛ৢ੫ஒஓஔಙಚಟೠith no control group. (EG): O1 → X1 → O2

Static Group Comparison: no random sampling (EG): X → O1 (CG): O2