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K I N

D S .

O F M A R K E T

R E S E A R C H

What is Market Research Here, market research means techniques for gathering information from and about customers to support a business decision.

It’s a process of designing, gathering, analyzing, and reporting information that may be used to solve a specific marketing problem.

Three Steps

First of all, the decision has to be big and important enough to justify the cost

Second, the decision has to have a long enough time frame to allow for data collection.

Finally, the decision has to be such as to benefit from collecting data from or about customers

Designed to findout what you need

Why do Market Research 1.

2. 3.

To know when it’s worth it

HOW

• If there is enough money at stake

• Information gaps listed below stand between you and a good decision.

• If you don’t know enough about what customers actually need; what’s on their minds or how their situation is changing • What they are (un) happy about, or • What’s driving this (un) happiness

• How many customers of Type X versus Type Y are out there

• How customers select a vendor, search for information, decide where to shop, and so forth.

• What drives the choice of one product configuration over another

• How much they’d be willing to pay and how many would buy at this price

Marketing or Market research?

Market Research02Marketing Research01

Marketing Research Provides Value When … • The results …

• Clarify problems or opportunities • Lead to attracting more customers • Identify changes that are occurring in

the marketplace among consumers and/or competitors

• Identify the best alternative to pursue among a set of proposed alternatives

• Help your brand gain a competitive advantage

…

PLC

P R E L A U N C H R O L L O U T E S T A B L I S H E DM A R K E T S

Basic Research research is conducted to expand our knowledge rather than to solve a specific problem.

# O n e

Applied Research is conducted to solve specific problems.

# T w o

Marketing Research Process done for improvement

• Project-based, focused on specific decisions • External only • Exploratory vs. Confirmatory

• Early in decision phase à exploratory • Later in decision phase à confirmatory

• Can be qualitative or quantitative • Sources include:

• Interviews • Mall-intercept studies • Observations • Focus groups • Descriptive surveys • Experiments

New Data

• Previously collected for another purpose other than the decision at hand

• May be internal or external • Typically cheaper and quicker than any other

option • Although certain types can be quite

expensive (i.e. syndicated data) • Tends to give broad rather than deep

understanding • Essentially a matter of library research and

Internet searching • Sources include:

• Sales/financial reports • Existing research • Industry reports

Pre-Existing Data

Primary Secondary

• The question: • How many? Which one?

• The task: • Obtain precise numbers,

percentages or averages • The goal:

• Compare two or more numbers • Conduct statistical analysis

• Key competence: • Sampling • Hypothesis construction

#’s or %’s

• The question: • What kind? Why?

• The task: • Make discoveries • Grasp reality

• The goal: • Deepen insight, come away with a

picture • Key competence:

• Listening • Pattern recognition

Words

Quantitative Qualitative

• Qualitative • Mainly used for exploratory

purposes early in the decision phase

• Tools: • Focus groups • Customer visits • Individual interviews • Ethnography

• Quantitative • Mainly used for confirmatory

purposes late in the decision phase

• Tools: • Descriptive surveys • Experiments (concept

tests and test markets) • Choice modeling and

conjoint analysis

Quantitative Qualitative

Market Research Toolbox: for Primary research

V S

Market Research

Exploratory Confirmatory

EXPLORATORY

Qualitative techniques: You want a better grasp of the different qualities of customer response.

CONFIRMATORY

Quantitative techniques: You want to count the frequency of or measure the strength of the various qualities of response identified during the exploratory phases.

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The Five-Step Marketing Research Process • It takes resources, albeit time, money,

and manpower to conduct sound marketing research that yields valuable information

• Depending on the project: • The process can take a few

weeks or months, or can be ongoing for several years (i.e. tracking studies)

• The process can be simple or complex

• In general, there is a five-step process to conduct most marketing research

One Identify the research need 1. What is your research question?

2. What will you do with this information?

3. Could you access this information in-

house or through a third-party?

4. When do you need this information?

5. Does the benefit of the research project

outweigh the cost of the project?

What is your research question? • Formulating the research question or problem helps

identify the research need

• Marketing research studies are performed to inform a decision

• The need for a decision arises because something has changed

• Change may be unplanned (sales shortfall, serendipity)

• Or planned (product introduction or market entry consequent to earlier strategic decisions)

• The researcher needs to know: • Who is the decision-maker or user of the research,

and what are their key concerns? • What are the decision alternatives under

consideration? • What are the criteria that will be used to evaluate

alternatives?

Decision Problem

Which new markets should we enter?

From Decision Problem to Research Question

Research Questions

Evaluate sales potential and competitor penetration across available markets

How can we extend the brand?

Identify unmet needs of current product users

What will you do with this information? • This is referred to as the action

standard. • Helps the decision-maker determine

what the information will help them accomplish

• So, be sure to ask, “what is your action standard?” • Will obtaining this information alter

the course of your decision-making? • Or, could this information potentially

lead you to a different decision then if you did not have the information at all?

• For example – this information can aid in product design decisions or help you choose between ad campaign A or B…

Externally … check out: • Industry websites • Trade publications and reports • Even Google!

Internally … check with the firm’s: • Database managers • Sales and marketing teams • IT people • Or anyone else who may have access

to the information

Could you access this information in-house or through a third-party?

Done

Deadline

To-Do

If needed immediately or very soon, then it is unlikely results will be available in enough time to help with the decision

If needed in a few weeks, or ideally a few months, then there should be enough time to collect useful information and have the results before its time to make the final decision

When do you need this information?

Does the benefit of the research project outweigh the cost of the project?

What are the stakes at hand? How much will a poor vs. good decision cost? How much will we benefit from a better versus a worse decision?

Some decisions are too minor to justify formal marketing research but most new product introductions, and significant strategic departures generally justify the cost of marketing research