24/01/2024
MKT301E Lecture 3
Marketing research
Principles of marketing
Contact
- Dr Tran Thu Trang: thutrang@ftu.edu.vn
Lecture Agenda
The marketing information system
– Marketing intelligence vs Marketing research
The marketing research process
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Consumer Insights
Good marketing
decisions comes from
good data
Consumer insights:
Fresh and deep
understanding of
customers needs and
wants
Difficult to obtain
– Not obvious
– Customers
unsure/secretive of their
behavior
The marketing information system
The marketing information system (MIS)
consists of people, equipment and
procedures used to:
– Assessing the information needs
– Developing needed information
– Helping decision makers use the information
for customer insights
Assessing information needs
A good MIS balances the information
managers would like to have against what
they really need and what is feasible to
acquire and monitor.
The system begins by interviewing
managers to find out what information
they would like.
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The marketing information system
Marketing Intelligence
A routine ongoing activity of information
collecting to enrich understanding of the
marketplace
Improve strategic decision making by:
– Understanding the consumer environment
– Assessing and tracking competitors actions
– Providing early warnings of opportunities and
threats
Marketing Research
The systematic design, collection, analysis,
and reporting of data relevant to a specific
marketing situation facing an organization
Typically conducted to answer questions
stemming from issues uncovered by
marketing intelligence information
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Marketing Research
Marketing research links the consumer,
customer and public to the marketer through
information.
It is used to
– identify and define marketing opportunities and
problems
– generate, refine and evaluate marketing actions
– monitor market performance
– improve understanding of the marketing process
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The importance of marketing research
• An example from Kraft in China
Source: http://www.marketingmag.ca/brands/marketing-to-
china-oreos-chinese-twist-67561
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=U48nmKPJclA
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Steps in a marketing
research project
Step 1 Defining the marketing problem
Step 2 Developing the research plan
Step 3 Collecting secondary data
Step 4 Collecting primary data
Step 5 Analysing the data
Step 6 Reporting the findings
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The marketing research process
Defining the problem and the research objective
The marketing manager and the
researcher must work closely to
define the problem carefully and
agree on the research objective.
The manager understands best what
information is needed, while the
researcher understands marketing
research and how best to obtain the
information.
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Problem definition
Market research Market research
problem objective
Determining what The specific
information is information needed to
needed and how that solve a marketing
research problem. The
information can be
objective should
obtained efficiently provide insightful
and effectively. What decision-making
decision will be information.
made based on this
information?
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Problem Definition
The most difficult step in the
research process.
Symptom – marketing
phenomenon (usually
identifiable and measurable).
Marketing problem – the cause
of the symptom (usually a
correctable 4P issue).
Market research problem –
identifies type of information
needed to solve the marketing
problem.
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Problem Definition
E.g.
Marketing problem Market research problem
Should the firm introduce a Estimate market potential for
new product in the the new product by evaluating
marketplace? customers’ preferences and
buying intentions.
Which positioning strategy Measure brand awareness for
should the firm adopt? competing brands and define
distinct advantages of the firm’s
brand.
How to attract more customers
Define stores’ strengths and
to the stores?
weaknesses and factors
influencing store visit frequency
of similar stores.
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The marketing research process
Defining the problem and the research objective
Once the problem has been defined, the
manager and researcher must set the research
objective.
There are three types of objectives –
Exploratory research – the objective is to
gather preliminary information that will help
define the problem and suggest hypotheses
Descriptive research – describing things such
as market potential for a product
Causal research – testing hypotheses about
cause-and-effect relationships
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Exploratory research
“What’s out there?”
– Focus is on the discovery of ideas
– Most commonly used for further defining company
issues
– The research you do when you don’t know what
questions you should be asking
– does not intend to offer final and conclusive
solutions to existing problems
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Exploratory research is (mostly)
open ended
“What are young kids into these days?”
“Why are people not buying from us
anymore?”
“What are consumers thinking about when
they hear our brand name?”
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Descriptive research
Describe, count, or ‘map’ characteristics of a
population or phenomenon being studied
Surveying of demographical traits in a certain
group
It does not answer questions about
how/when/why the characteristics occur
Organizations often use it as a method to reveal
and measure something
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Descriptive research is primarily
about measuring things
“What is the potential market size we can
expect if we open a hipster café around
Glenferrie?”
“How many people will like the taste of
green tea Fried Chicken?”
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Causal research
Testing hypothesis or prediction
Looks at the effect of one thing or variable on
another
Tries to establish what causes a certain
phenomena – Does X cause Y?
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Causal research is about
confirming cause and effects
(usually through comparisons)
“Which celebrity should we use to boost
our sales?”
“How much will sales change if I reduce
price by 10%?”
“What will be the change in people’s
reaction to service failure if I play loud
music instead of classical music in my
restaurant?”
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Exploratory vs Descriptive vs
Causal
“Why are people not buying from us?”
– Is best answered via exploratory - open ended
questioning
“Which consumer segments have we lost
since last year?”
– Is best answered via descriptive measurements
“How much discount should I offer to get
customers back?”
– Is best answered via experimental research
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Steps in a marketing
research project
Step 1 Defining the marketing problem
Step 2 Developing the research plan
Step 3 Collecting secondary data
Step 4 Collecting primary data
Step 5 Analysing the data
Step 6 Reporting the findings
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The marketing research process
Developing the research plan
The research plan outlines the following:
Research
Sources of data
approaches
Contact
Sampling plans
methods
Instruments
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Types of data
Primary
data
Secondary
data
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Gathering secondary data
Information that already exists somewhere,
having been collected for another purpose.
Commercial
Government
online
data
databases
https://www.consumerbarometer.com/en/
Some excellent data sources here >>> https://www.statista.com/
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Secondary data
Advantages Disadvantages
Cost Current?
Speed Relevant?
Could not get
Accurate?
data otherwise
Impartial?
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Primary data
Primary data consist of information gathered for a
specific research plan
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Primary data collection
Research is often separated into Research
qualitative and quantitative
research. approaches
Observational Ethnographic
Qualitative Quantitative research
research
research research
Experimental Survey
research research
Mixed methods
research
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Primary data collection
Research approaches
Observational research involves gathering primary
data by observing relevant people, actions, and
situations.
Ethnographic research involves sending trained
observers to watch and interact with consumers in
their “natural environments.”
Survey research is the gathering of primary data by
asking people questions about their knowledge,
attitudes, preferences and buying behavior
Experimental research involves gathering primary
data by selecting matched groups of subjects, giving
them different treatments, controlling related factors,
and checking for differences in group responses.
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Steps in a marketing
research project
Step 1 Defining the marketing problem
Step 2 Developing the research plan
Step 3 Collecting secondary data
Step 4 Collecting primary data
Step 5 Analysing the data
Step 6 Reporting the findings
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Implementing the research plan
After designing the research and data
collection, the researcher needs to put the
marketing plan into action.
– Collecting, processing and analysing the
information.
– The researcher then uses statistics program to
summarise the results and to understand
what might predict the outcomes of interest.
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Steps in a marketing
research project
Step 1 Defining the marketing problem
Step 2 Developing the research plan
Step 3 Collecting secondary data
Step 4 Collecting primary data
Step 5 Analysing the data
Step 6 Reporting the findings
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Interpreting and reporting the
findings
The researcher must
now interpret the
findings and draw
conclusions and
report them to
management.
The researcher should
present major
findings that are
useful for the main
decisions faced by
management.
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Sometimes market research will
not give us the answer
“If I asked consumers what they want,
they would have said “a faster horse” Henry Ford
People cannot imagine completely new products and
concepts. So we can use Marketing Research to come to
understand people’s wants, needs and motivations. But if
we ask them “What do you want?” they can only answer
from within their current level of knowledge.
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