Marketing Management
Fifteenth Edition
Chapter 4
Conducting
Marketing
Research
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Learning Objectives
4.1 What is the scope of marketing research?
4.2 What steps are involved in conducting good marketing
research?
4.3 What are the best metrics for measuring marketing
productivity?
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The Scope of Marketing Research (1 of 4)
• American Marketing Association
– Marketing research is the function that links the
consumer, customer, and public to the marketer
through information—information used to identify and
define marketing opportunities and problems; generate,
refine, and evaluate marketing actions; monitor
marketing performance; and improve understanding of
marketing as a process.
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The Scope of Marketing Research (2 of 4)
• Importance of marketing insights
– Generating insights (how and why we observe certain
effects in the marketplace)
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The Scope of Marketing Research (3 of 4)
• Who Does Marketing Research?
‒ Marketing departments in big firms
‒ Everyone at small firms
‒ Syndicated-service research firms
‒ Custom marketing research firms
‒ Specialty-line marketing research firms
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Research Conducted at Small
Companies
• Engage students/professors
• Tap employee creativity
• Use Internet
• Tap partner expertise
• Check out rivals
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The Scope of Marketing Research (4 of 4)
• Overcoming Barriers to the
Use of Marketing Research
– Many companies still fail
to use it sufficiently or
correctly
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Figure 4.1 The Marketing Research
Process
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Step 1: Define the Problem, Define the Decision
Alternatives, Define the Research Objectives
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (1 of 6)
• Data sources
– Secondary data vs. primary data
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (2 of 6)
• Research approaches
‒ Observational research
‒ Focus group research
‒ Survey research
‒ Behavioral research
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (3 of 6)
• Research instruments
– Questionnaires
– Qualitative measures
– Technological devices
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Questionnaire (1 of 2)
Table 4.1 Types of Questions
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Questionnaire (2 of 2)
[Table 4.1 continued]
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (4 of 6)
• Technological devices
– Galvanometer
– Tachistoscope
– Eye-tracking
– Facial detection
– Skin sensors
– Brain wave scanners
– Audiometer
– GPS
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (5 of 6)
• Sampling plan
– Sampling unit: Whom should we survey?
– Sample size: How many people should we survey?
– Sampling procedure: How should we choose the
respondents?
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Step 2: Develop the Research
Plan (6 of 6)
• Contact methods
– Mail
– Telephone
– Personal
– Online
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Online Research
• Advantages • Disadvantages
– Inexpensive – Small
– Expansive – Skewed
– Fast – Excessive turnover
– Honest – Technological
– Thoughtful problems
– Versatile – Technological
inconsistencies
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Step 3 to Step 6
• Step 3: Collect the Information
• Step 4: Analyze the Information
• Step 5: Present the Findings
• Step 6: Make the Decision
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Measuring Marketing Productivity
• Marketing metrics
• Marketing-mix modeling
• Marketing dashboards
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Marketing Metrics
• Measures that help marketers quantify, compare, and
interpret performance
Table 4.3 Sample Marketing Metrics
I. External II. Internal
Awareness Awareness of goals
Market share (volume or value) Commitment of goals
Relative price (market share value/volume) Active innovation support
Number of complaints (level of dissatisfaction) Resource adequacy
Consumer satisfaction Staffing/skill levels
Distribution/availability Desire to learn
Total number of customers Willingness to change
Perceived quality/esteem Freedom to fail
Loyalty/retention Autonomy
Relative perceived quality Relative employee satisfaction
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Marketing-Mix Modeling
• Analyzes data from a variety of sources, such as
retailer scanner data, company shipment data, pricing,
media, and promotion spending data, to understand
more precisely the effects of specific marketing
activities
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Marketing Dashboards
• “A concise set of interconnected performance drivers
to be viewed in common throughout the organization.”
‒ Customer-performance scorecard
‒ Stakeholder-performance scorecard
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Sample Customer-Performance
Scorecard Measures
Table 4.4 Sample Customer-Performance Scorecard Measures
• Percentage of new customers to average number of customers
• Percentage of lost customers to average number of customers
• Percentage of Win-back customers to average number of customers
• Percentage of customers falling into very dissatisfied, natural, satisfied, and very
satisfied categories
• Percentage of customers who say they would repurchase the product
• Percentage of customers who say they would recommend the product to others
• Percentage of target market customers who have brand awareness or recall
• Percentage of customers who say that the company’s product is the most preferred in
its category
• Percentage of customers who correctly identify the brand’s intended positioning and
differentiation
• Average perception of company’s product quality relative to chief competitor
• Average perception of company’s service quality relative to chief competitor
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Figure 4.3 Example of a Marketing
Dashboard
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