Marketing research
Dikgedrukt= Kopje of hoofdstuk
Onderstreept= Betekenis
Schuingedrukt= Belangrijk
*tussen sterretjes*= Komt uit het boek, niet uit het college
VB./ Ex.= Voorbeeld / example
Lecture 1
This course is not about the basics nor the hardest formulas. Cases will be discussed on how
marketing will or will not work on a daily basis.
For example. Tropicana tried to launch a new packaging. But after a few months sales has
dropped with 20%. Therefor, the brand had to return to the old packaging. What was the
problem? The new packaging wasn’t recognizable. Consumers can be attached to a brand
and their packaging. It costs 15 million dollars, they probably conducted the wrong
marketing research for the wrong problem. They did not study the new packaging in their
new environment.
Old spice; they figured out that a campaign should not only be attractive for the target group
but also for the people buying them. Such as man care products are usually bought by their
wife, mother etc. They should also feel attracted to their brand.
Important figures
50-95% of new products fail
50% of advertising has no effect
85% of price promotions do not pay off
Goal of marketing research
- Guide and improve decision making
- Guide the marketing plan (STP, segmenting, targeting, positioning)
- Trace problems
- Understand changes
- Predict outcomes
Why should we care
- Interesting, diverse (dynamic) area
- Every company uses some sort of marketing
- Companies love students who are good at (quantitive) research, a real asset for you
- Essential preparation for MSc Marketing, that goes more in depth of the topics
Marketing research= the systematic and objective identification, collection, analysis and
dissemination of information for the purpose of improving decision making related to the
identification of problems and opportunities in marketing. Market research is a subset of
marketing research.
Data amounts do not immediately mean that we have actionable insights about the data. We
need to know what we can do with this data. For example. Improve consumer experience,
advice what to watch in the future.
Research can take many forms
Qualative vs. Quantative
Exploratie vs. Descriptive vs. Causal
Secondary data vs. Primary data
Survey data vs. Transaction data
Ad-hoc data vs. Continuous vs. Panel
B2B vs. Consumer
Applied vs. Scientific
Valid vs. Not valid
Marketing research process
It is a systematic process:
1. Problem definition
,Clarifies the management decision problem. Takes into account: the purpose, background
information, information needed. It defines the research problem and questions. You have to
create mutual understanding and agreement and confirm the information value. It should
guide the researcher in proceeding with the project.
Management decision problem Marketing research problem
Asks what the decision maker needs to do Asks what information is needed and how it
(for example. Are sales going down?) should be obtained
Action oriented Information oriented
FE. What can we do to retain talented work- FE. How attractive is the city currently?
force?
FE. How can we make the city more attrac- FE. What aspects influence the attractive-
tive? ness?
Tasks involved:
- Discussion with decision makers (city marketing)
- Interviews with experts
- Secondary data analysis
- Qualitative research
Marketing problem —> broad statement —> (theory, literature,
secondary data) leads to specific components —> hypotheses
2. Development of an approach
- Starts with objective/ theoretical framework; Which variables
(constructs) should be investigated? Based on academic literature,
general empirical findings.
- Model; Variables and their interrelationships. Verbal, graphical or
mathematical. Model= A stylized representation of reality. For
example. Graphical model (see figure).
- Hypotheses; Tentative statements about relationships between two or
more variables (according to theory). For example. A possible answer
to each research question. It can be tested empirically.
3. Research design formulation
- Purpose is to design a specific study
- Framework for conducting the marketing research project
- Procedures for obtaining the information needed
- Details of implementing the approach
Types of research design:
- Exploratory= discover ideas, insights, understanding processes. Ways to generate data:
Experts, qualitative research.
- Descriptive= describing important characteristics/ markets. Ways to generate data:
Surveys, panels, quantitive research.
(Conlusive research)
- Causal= determine cause-effect relations.
Ways to generate data: Cleanest:
experiments. (Conlusive research)
Which type is needed? Or can you use multiple?
Differences —>
6 W’s for research:
- Why: MDP
- What: MRP + Research questions
,- Way: Type (exploratory, descriptive, causal), Method of data collection, Method of analysis.
- Who: Population, target group. Sampling frame. Sampling method, sample size.
- When
- Where
4. Fieldwork or data collection
5. Data preparation & analysis
6. Report preparation
Secondary vs. primary data
Secondary data= data collected for some purpose other than the problem at hand. Can be
located quickly with lower costs.
Primary data= data collected for the specific purpose of addressing the problem at hand.
Classification of secondary data:
Census data= collected by the government and published online.
Nielsen scanner data= Consumer based, what they buy, how they shop etc.
, Primary data Secondary
data
Collected for… Problem at hand Similar prob-
lems
Costs Expensive Inexpensive
Time Takes longer Takes little time
Actuality Current Potentially older
Relevance High Potentially low
Source Known Trusted?
When to use secondary data?
General rule (malhotra): Start with
secondary data, when exhausted or
marginal returns —> collect primary
data. Critically evaluate the
quality/suitability of secondary data, such
as: methodology, errors, objectives. Is it
clean and valid?
Lecture 2 - 2 feb 2021
Qualitative research
Qualitative research= analysis of words,
instead of numbers.
Qualitative research is often exploratory.
An ambiguous problem to which we want new
insights and understanding. Exploring issues
which are hard to quantify or to give an
objective answer to.
Does a needs b? —> Causal effect.
Limitations of qualitative research
- Small number of
cases; in-depth interviews with 10 people vs. survey of 200
people? What is the rate of generalizability?
- Often relies on judgement of the researcher; no statistical tests.
We can’t include all the data, the researcher must decide how to
group data and see what’s important.
How to solve the limitations?
* In-depth description of the data (FE. Quotes)
* Transparency in the process (FE. Coding)
* Triangulation
Coding
Coding= how you define what the data you are analyzing is about.
A process of identifying a passage in the text, identifying concepts
and finding relations between them. Not only labelling but it is
about linking the data to the research question and back to the
other data.
The codes enable you to organize data to examine and analyze
them in a structured way (FE. By examine relationships between
codes). Such as Atlas.ti, Nvivo.
Triangulation (Flick, 2004)
Aims to increase the validity of the findings by observing the
same issue from different sides; Triangulation of data (gather
