Marketing Research Process
What triggers the need for research?
Problems; opportunities; emerging social and economic trends
When should projective techniques be used?
When motivations are not easily articulated, participants indirectly project their own underlying motivations into the situation.
What is the goal of conclusive research?
To narrow down alternatives to one course of action & test hypotheses
What scale maintains the labeling characteristics of nominal scale and can order data?
Ordinal
What is the first step in conducting a marketing research project?
Define the problem or opportunity
When should a researcher use an in-depth interview instead of a focus group?
When detailed, personal insights are needed on sensitive topics or personal experiences rather than group opinions or dynamics.
What are some advantages of longitudinal data?
Effective in determining variable patterns over time; can ensure focus and validity; accuracy when observing changes.
Which analysis can be done with a ratio scale?
Correlation and regression analysis
What are some commonly used data collection methods in qualitative research?
Focus groups, in-depth interviews, surveys, ethnography, observations
What metrics does performance monitoring research track to evaluate the effectiveness of marketing & business performance?
Sales, market share, satisfaction, brand awareness, trends, competitor performance
What factors should be considered when selecting target participants for a focus group?
Demographics, Psychographics, Behavioral Characteristics, Experiential Criteria
How can extraneous variables be controlled?
Random assignment
What distinguishes the four levels of measurement: nominal, ordinal, interval, and ratio?
Nominal: unique values
Ordinal: unique values + rank order
Interval: unique values + rank order + equal intervals
Ratio: unique values + rank order + equal intervals + meaningful absolute zero point
In what situations might qualitative research be preferred over quantitative research?
When the research problem is not well-defined, when exploring new markets or products, or when understanding nuanced consumer experiences that numbers alone can’t reveal
What is the difference between pre-experimental and true experimental designs?
Pre-experimental designs do NOT use random assignment to control for extraneous factors, while true experimental do.
What are the 3 types of marketing research?
Exploratory research, conclusive research, performance-monitoring research
What are the two types of secondary data? Provide an example for each.
Internal: data collected/stored within an organization itself (customer relationship management records)
External: information gathered from sources outside the organization (industry reports)
What are the pros and cons of laboratory experiments?
Cons: artificial environment, difficult to generalize results, low external validity. Pros: high control over variables, increased internal variability, cheaper/easier
What is the difference between validity and reliability?
Validity measures whether a test measures what it’s supposed to; reliability measures whether it produces consistent results.
What are the cons of qualitative research?
Small sample sizes, subjectivity, time-consuming, costly, hard to quantify
What are the conditions required for causality?
The cause (x) and the effect (y) are correlated, the cause (x) must occur before the effect (y), and x should be the only plausible causal explanation
What is the goal of exploratory research?
Help management define the decision problem and alternative courses of action
How does the laddering technique work and what is its purpose?
Keep asking “why” to move from product attributes to the emotional needs and values of the consumer; the purpose is to uncover deeper motivations to guide marketing strategy
What are the types of validity in experiments? Define them.
Internal validity: the extent to which competing explanations for the experimental results observed can be ruled-out.
External validity: The extent to which causal relationships measured in an experiment can be generalized to outside persons, settings, and times.
What are the two main sources of measurement error? Explain each.
Systematic Error - a consistent pattern of error that affects measurement in a constant way; includes measurement & sampling error
Random Error - unpredictable “noise” during measurement