Why Is Marketing Research So Important?

Marketing
Research
Why is Marketing Research so Important?
Marketing research is important because marketers make their decisions based on facts.
The marketers always monitor the customers, the environmental context, competitors,
relationship with the collaborators, and their own company’s strength.
And marketers make their decisions based on the 4P’s, the Product, Price, Place, and
Promotion.
There are 6 popular techniques in Data Collection
1. Cluster Analysis for segmentation
2. Perceptual mapping for positioning

3. Focus group for concept testing
4. Conjoint for testing attributes
5. Scanner data for pricing and coupon experiments and brand switching
6. Surveys for assessing customer satisfaction
Cluster Analysis for Segmentation

(Survey Samples)
Perceptual Mapping for Positioning
1. Attribute Based
2. Multidimensional Scaling
Attribute Based
Multidimensional Scaling
Focus Groups for Concept Testing
Focus Groups are usually used as exploratory techniques, meaning that you don’t quite
know yet what questions you’d put on a survey.
An exploratory technique is used in the early stages of some marketing inquiries. Most
often, focus groups are used as a vehicle for concept testing in the early stages of new product
development or working toward the development of an ad campaign.
A person is hired to be moderator. A person who keeps the discussion going, tries to
address all the items on the client’s wish list, tries to bring out the quieter group members, tries
to control the overbearing group members. If the topic is a sensitive one, it can help to have the
moderator be similar to the focus group participants to put them at ease and establish rapport.
Ethnographies are a mix of observation and interviews with other participants. While
surveys can deliver a large sample sizes and some certitude around numbers, qualitative
methods offer rich, deep understandings of customer motivations.
Conjoint for Testing Attributes
Conjoint studies are really
popular for questions of pricing, new
products and branding. The studies
are run to understand how
consumers make trade-offs.

Anatomy of a Focus Group
Focus groups are used to elicit qualitative feedback on brand perceptions testing new
product concepts, reactig to storyboards, depicting a potential ad campaign etc.
Focus Group rooms can be set for a variety of uses such as showcasing products, like
shampoo or technology like high definition screens to show websites or new designs for a
restaurant, retailer, hotel.
Focus groups can also be used to obtain quantitative ratings, but then the focus groups
should be followed up on with more extensive surveying on larger, representative samples.
Conjoint Analysis
Conjoint Analysis uncovers the product attributes that consumers value most and allows
marketers to determine what combination of attribute values to include for optimal pricing.
This is accomplished through market research surveys in which consumers rate combinations of
product attributes.
Scanner Data for Pricing and Coupon Experiments and Brand Switching
Scanner Data have reshaped marketing and business. Scanners began in grocery stores to
help inventory management, but it quickly became obvious that the information obtained was
far more valuable. Whenever you go to a grocery store, your purchases are scanned, and in that
simple gesture, the company knows what you bought, how much of everything you bought,
what brands you bought, how much you paid for everything.
If you offer your loyalty card for discounts and coupons, the company uses your buyer
identification number to tie you current purchase to your last buying history.
Price or packaging can be tweaked in one market or in one store in one town and
subsequent sales can be compared to those in the other markets or stores that serves as the
control group. This kind of study provides the cleanest test possible of the ROMI (Return On
Marketing Investment) of any marketing mix lever. Tweak the marketing and watch the sales
move.
Many things also happen in the marketplace that you can’t control; e.g., if its not you but
your competitor that raises prices what happens? This scenario is referred to as naturalistic
observation; you’re not tweaking the environment, but you’re constantly monitoring it.
Surveys for Assessing Customer Satisfaction

Many companies are interested in getting feedback from their customers. As a result, a
little industry within marketing research has sprung up to offer their services at creating and
evaluating customer satisfaction surveys. While surveys involves a bit of an art, and therefore,
relying on someone with experience is a good idea, the basic idea is not complicated. You write
survey questions, pre-test them, and then put the survey out to a sample of your customers.
Questions about customer satisfaction can be as straightforward as “How would rate the
service you just received at our car dealership? 0 = Very dissatisfactory to 100 = Very
satisfactory. It is also common to ask customers, how the purchase rates compared to their
expectations, e.g., “How did your visit at our hotel seem to you?” 1 = Fell short of my
expectations, to 4 = met my expectations, to 7 = greatly exceeded my expectations.
It is important to include actionable survey questions. If customer satisfaction is high,
that’s great, but if its low, there need to be some diagnostic questions that point to the
priorities a company should take to enhance customers’ perception of quality.

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Marketing

relationship with the collaborators, and their own company’s strength.

There are 6 popular techniques in Data Collection

1. Cluster Analysis for segmentation

2. Perceptual mapping for positioning

4. Conjoint for testing attributes

6. Surveys for assessing customer satisfaction

Cluster Analysis for Segmentation

know yet what questions you’d put on a survey.

development or working toward the development of an ad campaign.

methods offer rich, deep understandings of customer motivations.

Conjoint for Testing Attributes

Conjoint studies are really

popular for questions of pricing, new

products and branding. The studies

are run to understand how

consumers make trade-offs.

product concepts, reactig to storyboards, depicting a potential ad campaign etc.

restaurant, retailer, hotel.

should be followed up on with more extensive surveying on larger, representative samples.

Surveys for Assessing Customer Satisfaction

expectations, to 4 = met my expectations, to 7 = greatly exceeded my expectations.

It is important to include actionable survey questions. If customer satisfaction is high,

priorities a company should take to enhance customers’ perception of quality.

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