The Process of Gathering and Interpreting Data for Use in Developing, Implementing, and Monitoring Firms’ Marketing Plans.

Decision problem  

Research problem

Manager perspective

Researcher perspective

Broad

Specific

Action/decision oriented

Information oriented

More subjective

More objective

Three types of research design

Methods

Characteristics

Useful for

Types of research

Exploratory

Goal:

To gain insights and ideas to identify or redefine problems.

To understand exactly what information is needed by managers to make important decisions.

To generate hypotheses about the key aspects of a problem

To increase researchers’ familiarity with the problem

To clarify concepts

Case studies

Focus group

Qualitative research

Flexible

Versatile (通用的)

Not conclusive

Discovery of ideas and insights.
It will be used when the problem to be solved is broad or vague.

Not overly complex

1) Literature search (quick and cheap)

(the first step to conduct exploratory research)

2) Depth interview

3) Focus group

4) Case analyses

5) Projective methods

Focus group:

→E.G. the revenue of a firm is declining, it can help finding the reason

1) Generate ideas

2) Understand

consumer needs and attitudes

3) Predict the effects of social influence

4) Test comprehension of promotional materials

→product or package design, brand logo, ads

Participants:

6-12members

avoid power differentials

heterogeneity

strangers

Ethnographic Observation:

→ generate insights based on real behavior rather than on what ppl say

→detect new fashions

Descriptive

1) To describe group characteristic. →demographics, behavior, personality, attitude, motivation

e.g. HK smartphone users

2) To describe the relationship between

variables

→android vs IOS

3) To make specific predictions

→using data source e.g. Secondary and Primary

Survey

Panels

Scanner data→ (Secondary data)

Preplanned

Structured

Conclusive

Describe market characteristics or functions

Causal

Three elements:

1) concomitant variation

2) precedence

3) systematic elimination of other possible factors

experiments

Manipulation and control of variables

Determine cause and effect relationship

e.g. will…improve sales?

Will it be popular if….?