Imagine you own a pet grooming business. You want to use market research to identify how you can grow your business but you are on a limited budget. Review the marketing research techniques outlined in the chapter to determine which ones can be used for your small business. What information will you need and how will you obtain it? Your reply must be at least 500 words PLUS a minimum of 2 references to support your answer. You must use correct APA formatting (Times New Roman 12 point font and 1 inch margins). Submit your paper as an attachment. Your word count excludes the title page, abstract, and references. some info from text that may help : [FROM TEXTBOOK -- PRINCIPLES OF MARKETING 18E] Gathering Secondary Data Researchers usually start by gathering secondary data. The company’s internal database provides a good starting point. However, the company can also tap into a wide assortment of external information sources. Companies can buy secondary data from outside suppliers. For example, Nielsen sells shopper insight information from more than 900,000 participating stores around the world. Experian Simmons carries out a full spectrum of consumer studies that provide a comprehensive view of the American consumer. The U.S. MONITOR service by Kantar Futures sells information on important social and lifestyle trends. Kantar’s Cultural Streetscapers can give marketers “an on-the-ground view of anything that’s shaping the marketplace of tomorrow (and today): from broad societal shifts to breakthrough trends and unique consumer segments.” These and other firms supply high-quality data to suit a wide variety of marketing information needs.137 Using commercial online databases, marketing researchers can conduct their own searches of secondary data sources. General database services such as ProQuest and LexisNexis put an incredible wealth of information at the fingertips of marketing decision makers. Beyond commercial services offering information for a fee, almost every industry association, government agency, business publication, and news medium offers free information to those tenacious enough to find their websites or apps. Internet search engines can also be a big help in locating relevant secondary information sources. However, they can also be very frustrating and inefficient. For example, a Chick-fil-A marketer Googling “fast-food vegan chicken” would come up with more than 42 million hits. Still, well-structured, well-designed online searches can be a good starting point to any marketing research project. Secondary data can usually be obtained more quickly and at a lower cost than primary data. Also, secondary sources can sometimes provide data an individual company cannot collect on its own—information that either is not directly available or would be too expensive to collect. For example, it would be too expensive for a consumer products brand such as Coca-Cola or Tide to conduct a continuing retail store audit to find out about the market shares, prices, and displays of its own and competitors’ brands. But those marketers can buy store sales and audit data from IRI, which provides data from more than 100,000 retail stores in markets around the nation.138 Secondary data can also present problems. Researchers can rarely obtain all the data they need from secondary sources. For example, Chick-fil-A will not find existing information regarding consumer reactions about vegan chicken tenders in the fast-food setting. Even when data can be found, the information might not be very usable. The researcher must evaluate secondary information carefully to make certain it is relevant (fits the research project’s needs), accurate (reliably collected and reported), current (up-to-date enough for current decisions), and impartial (objectively collected and reported). Primary Data Collection Secondary data provide a good starting point for research and often help to define research problems and objectives. In most cases, however, the company must also collect primary data. Table 4.1 shows that designing a plan for primary data collection calls for decisions on research approaches, contact methods, the sampling plan, and research instruments. Research Approaches Research approaches for gathering primary data include observation, surveys, and experiments. We discuss each one in turn. Observational Research. Observational research involves gathering primary data by observing relevant people, actions, and situations. Researchers often observe consumer behavior to glean customer insights they can’t obtain by simply asking customers questions. For instance, many new menu items at pizza giant Domino’s come from its stores, where franchisees observe special requests from customers and fiddle accordingly to adapt existing offerings. The new menu ideas then come to corporate test kitchens, where they are tested using the company’s 12 “sensory booths.” Each booth is outfitted with a slot for sliding pizza slices to subjects and devices for getting feedback about product appearance, taste, and preferences. Beyond testing new products, Domino’s also uses the observation booths to test improvements in existing products and reactions to ingredients from new suppliers.139 Marketers not only observe what consumers do but also observe what consumers are saying. As discussed earlier, marketers now routinely listen in on consumer conversations on social media, blogs, and websites. Observing such naturally occurring feedback can provide inputs that simply can’t be gained through more structured and formal research approaches. A wide range of companies also use ethnographic research. Ethnographic research involves sending observers to watch and interact with consumers in their “natural environments.” The observers might be trained anthropologists and psychologists or company researchers and managers. Consider Intuit, maker of Turbo Tax and QuickBooks financial software:140 Observational and ethnographic research often yield the kinds of details that just don’t emerge from traditional research questionnaires or focus groups. Whereas traditional quantitative research approaches seek to test known hypotheses and obtain answers to well-defined product or strategy questions, observational research can generate fresh customer and market insights that people are unwilling or unable to provide. It provides a window into customers’ unconscious actions and unexpressed needs and feelings. However, some things simply cannot be observed, such as attitudes, motives, or private behavior. Long-term or infrequent behavior is also difficult to observe. Finally, observations can be very difficult to interpret. Because of these limitations, researchers often use observation along with other data collection methods. Survey Research. Long the backbone traditional marketing research, survey research is the most widely used method for primary data collection. Survey research is best suited for gathering descriptive information. A company that wants to know about people’s knowledge, attitudes, preferences, or buying behavior can often find out by asking them directly. The major advantage of survey research is its flexibility; it can be used to obtain many kinds of information in many different situations. Surveys addressing almost any marketing question or decision can be conducted by phone or mail, online, or in person. However, survey research also presents some problems. Sometimes people are unable to answer survey questions because they cannot remember or have never thought about what they do and why they do it. People may be unwilling to respond to unknown interviewers or about things they consider private. Respondents may answer survey questions even when they do not know the answer just to appear smarter or more informed. Or they may try to help the interviewer by giving pleasing answers. Finally, busy people may not take the time, or they might resent the intrusion into their privacy. Experimental Research. Whereas observation is best suited for exploratory research and surveys for descriptive research, experimental research is best suited for gathering causal information. Experiments involve selecting matched groups of subjects, giving them different treatments, controlling unrelated factors, and checking for differences in group responses. Thus, experimental research tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships. For example, before adding a new sandwich to its menu, McDonald’s might use experiments to test the effects on sales of two different prices it might charge. It could introduce the new sandwich at one price in one city and at another price in another city. If the cities are similar and if all other marketing efforts for the sandwich are the same, then differences in sales in the two cities could be related to the price charged. Online controlled experiments can be simple and inexpensive to run with immediate and revealing results. For example, to test a possible change in the way its Bing search engine displays ad headlines, Microsoft conducted an online “A/B test” or “split-run test” in which one group of users saw the old headline format (version A) while another group saw the new format (version B). Within only hours, the new headline variation was producing an astonishing 12 percent ad revenue increase without harming the user experience. Needless to say, Microsoft adopted the new format. Today, Microsoft and other digital companies such as Amazon, Google, and Facebook each conduct thousands of controlled experiments involving millions of users annually.141 Contact Methods Information can be collected by mail, by telephone, by personal interview, or online. Each contact method has its own particular strengths and weaknesses. 109 Mail, Telephone, and Personal Interviewing. Mail questionnaires can be used to collect large amounts of information at a low cost per respondent. Respondents may give more honest answers on a mail questionnaire than to an unknown interviewer in person or over the phone. Also, no interviewer is involved to bias respondents’ answers. However, mail questionnaires are not very flexible; all respondents answer the same questions in a fixed order. And mail surveys usually take longer to complete and response rates are often low. As a result, more and more marketers are now shifting to faster, more flexible, and lower-cost email, online, and mobile phone surveys. Telephone interviewing can be used by gather information quickly, and it provides greater flexibility than mail questionnaires. Interviewers can explain difficult questions and, depending on the answers they receive, skip some questions or probe on others. And interviewers can ask to speak to respondents with the desired characteristics or even by name. However, with telephone interviewing, the cost per respondent is higher than with mail, online, or mobile questionnaires. Also, people may not want to discuss personal questions with an interviewer. The method introduces interviewer bias—the way interviewers talk, how they ask questions, and other differences that may affect respondents’ answers. Finally, in this age of do-not-call lists, promotion-harassed consumers, caller ID, and mobile phones, potential survey respondents are increasingly not answering or are hanging up on telephone interviewers rather than talking with them. As a result, although telephone interviewing remains a valuable marketing research methodology, its use has declined in recent years. Personal interviewing takes two forms: individual interviewing and group interviewing. Individual interviewing involves talking with people in their homes or offices, on the street, or in shopping malls. Such interviewing is flexible. Trained interviewers can guide interviews, explain difficult questions, and explore issues as the situation requires. They can show subjects actual products, packages, advertisements, or videos and observe reactions and behavior. However, individual personal interviews may cost three to four times as much as telephone interviews. Focus Group Interviewing. Group interviewing consists of inviting small groups of people to meet with a trained moderator to talk about a product, service, or organization. Participants normally are paid a small sum for attending. A moderator encourages free and easy discussion, hoping that group interactions will bring out deeper feelings and thoughts. At the same time, the moderator “focuses” the discussion—hence the name focus group interviewing. In traditional focus groups, researchers and marketers watch the focus group discussions from behind a one-way mirror and video-record sessions for later study. Through videoconferencing and internet technology, marketers in far-off locations can look in and listen, even participate, as a focus group progresses. Focus group interviewing remains one of the major qualitative marketing research tools for gaining fresh insights into consumer thoughts and feelings. In focus group settings, researchers not only hear consumer ideas and opinions, they also can observe facial expressions, body movements, group interplay, and conversational flows. However, focus group studies present some challenges. They usually employ small samples to keep time and costs down, and it may be hard to generalize from the results. Moreover, consumers in focus groups are not always open and honest about their real feelings, behaviors, and intentions in front of other people. To overcome these problems, many researchers are tinkering with the focus group design. Some companies are changing the environments in which they conduct focus groups to help consumers relax and elicit more authentic responses. For example, Lexus hosts “An Evening with Lexus” dinners in customers’ homes with groups of luxury car buyers to learn up close and personal why they did or did not buy a Lexus. Other companies use immersion groups—small groups of consumers who interact directly and informally with product designers without a focus group moderator present. Research and innovation consultancy The Mom Complex uses such immersion groups to help brand marketers from companies such as Unilever, Johnson & Johnson, Kimberly-Clark, Kellogg, Playskool, and Walmart understand and connect with their “mom customers” Individual and focus group interviews can add a personal touch as opposed to more numbers-oriented, big data–driven research. They can provide rich insights into the motivations and feelings behind the numbers and analytics. Things really come to life when you hear people say them. For that reason, focus groups are still the most widely used qualitative research tool. Online Marketing Research. Increasingly, researchers are collecting primary data through online marketing research: internet and mobile surveys, online focus groups, consumer tracking, experiments, and online panels and brand communities. Online research can take many forms. A company can use the internet or mobile technology as a survey medium: It can include a questionnaire on its web or social media sites or use email or mobile devices to invite people to answer questions. It can create online panels that provide regular feedback or conduct live discussions or online focus groups. Researchers can also conduct online experiments. They can experiment with different prices, headlines, or product features on different web or mobile sites or at different times to learn the relative effectiveness of their offers. They can set up virtual shopping environments and use them to test new products and marketing programs. Or a company can learn about the behavior of online customers by following their movements they visit the online site and move to other sites. Online and mobile channels are especially well suited to quantitative research—for example, conducting marketing surveys and collecting data. Almost 90 percent of all Americans now use the internet and some 77 percent own a smartphone, making online a fertile channel for reaching a broad cross-section of consumers.143 As response rates for traditional survey approaches decline and costs increase, the internet is quickly replacing mail and the telephone as the dominant data collection methodology. Internet-based survey research offers many advantages over traditional phone, mail, and personal interviewing approaches. The most obvious advantages are speed and low costs. By going online, researchers can quickly and easily distribute surveys to thousands of respondents simultaneously via email or by posting them on selected online, social media, and mobile sites. Responses can be almost instantaneous, and because respondents themselves enter the information, researchers can tabulate, review, and share research data as the information arrives. Online research also usually costs much less than research conducted through mail, phone, or personal interviews. Using the internet eliminates most of the postage, phone, interviewer, and data-handling costs associated with the other approaches. Moreover, sample size and location have little impact on costs. Once the questionnaire is set up, there’s little difference in cost between 10 respondents and 10,000 respondents on the internet or between local or globally distant respondents. 111 Its low cost puts online research well within the reach of almost any business, large or small. In fact, with internet and mobile channels, what was once the domain of research experts is now available to almost any would-be researcher. Even smaller, less sophisticated researchers can use online survey services such as Snap Surveys, Qualtrics, SurveyMonkey, and SurveyGizmo to create, publish, and distribute their own custom online or mobile surveys in minutes. Online and mobile surveys also tend to be more interactive and engaging, easier to complete, and less intrusive than traditional phone or mail surveys. As a result, they usually garner higher response rates. The internet is an excellent medium for reaching the hard-to-reach consumer—for example, the often-elusive teen, single, affluent, and well-educated audiences. It’s also good for reaching people who lead busy lives, from working mothers to on-the-go executives. Such people are well represented online, and they can respond in their own space and at their own convenience. Just as marketing researchers have rushed to use the internet for quantitative surveys and data collection, they are now also adopting qualitative online research approaches, such as online focus groups, blogs, and social networks. The internet can provide a fast, low-cost way to gain qualitative customer insights.
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