The Marketing Plan

Talking to your Customer -Marketing

research will not be complete without
talking directly to the target customers.
It is good to estimate numbers such as
market size, market share and other
general assumptions, but the best way
to fully understand the customers is to
ask them about their specific thoughts
and desire.
Qualitative research- includes
identifying the written or spoken
opinions of customers.

Quantitative research- involves

analyzing the customers preferences
by using relevant statistics
Interview - is one of the most reliable
and credible ways of getting relevant
information from the target customers.
It is face to face contact between the
researcher/ entrepreneur and a
respondent where the researcher
asks pertinent question that will give
him significant pieces of information
about the problem that will solve.
The two main types of interviews being
conducted by the researcher are:
Unstructured interview is an informal
type of interview and does not follow
specific set of questions. The researcher
has a checklist if high level issues that he
or she wants to clarify with respondent. It is
preparatory interview to gather ideas about
the problems that will solved, so that these
issues will be considered in the formal
survey questionnaire to be presented to the
respondents..
Structured interview employs a
specific set of questions and produces
quantitative data. A pre-arranged
questionnaire with specific questions
usually answerable by yes or no
(closed-ended), forced ranking, multiple
choice, or the best will be answered by
the respondents. Unlike the structured
interview, a structured interview does
not allow the interviewer and the
respondents to omit or add questions,
nor change the sequence or how the
questions are worded
Focus Group Discussion of FGD- is
commonly used by market researchers
to capture qualitative results from target
customers. It is process of mining
customer and noncustomer experience
and insights about specific product or
service.
The FGD is also preparatory step in
crafting a quantitative survey because
this method generates background
information of hypotheses for a new
product or service. As compared to the
interview, the FGD has some advantages
as follows:
• The researcher can get combined
insights from the participants.
• The participants are more spontaneous and
enthusiastic because of the interaction with co-
participants, thereby sharing more insights to the
researcher.
• It can be observed by various spectators
Disadvantages:
• It obtains only qualitative data.
• Examination of the focus group session is
difficult and requires more time.
• There are potentially answers from the
participants because they will encounter peer
pressure
Observation- is one of the preferred and
practical methods of generating ideas
because the researcher document the
behavioral patterns of people or of
objects or events without necessarily
requiring them to participate in the
research process. One method is to
simply watch and examine the
customer’s behavior in their raw state
without biases and pretentions, thereby
providing more accurate results and
faster process.
Observation is reliable because it allows the
researcher to see the real and actual behavior of
customers rather than hearing what they need to
say (which may sometimes be biased,
incomplete. Sugarcoated. Or exaggerated).
Therefore, is not as pushy as the interview and
the FGD.
Example of Human Observation:
• Customer purchase patterns- This
human observation technique uses the
researcher to understand the buying behavior
of the customers such as determining their
pain points, buying patterns, location, price or
promotion.
Application to a printing business: The
human observer will count and rank the type
of printing jobs requested by the customers
per month (e.g., calendars, posters, student
publications, invitations).
• Mystery shopping- This is common
practice of service businesses today where
the researchers pretends he or she is a
customer of his or her own business or the
competitor/ This is a test to determine the
quality of the customer service or if the
service provider is doing the right job.
Application to a laundry business- The
human observer will bring his or her laundry
bag to a competitor and validate if the
service provider piece counts the clothes
and if the same will be delivered completely
Traditional and Online Surveys=
(quantitative research) It is the process of
getting answers from a sample of
respondents derived from a particular
population. A survey is very simple and
practical to run because it requires
preparation of predetermined questions
answerable by definite responses using
equitable scales.
Some of the traditional ways to conduct a
survey are via telephone, face-to—face
interaction, or traditional mail. The
e m e r g i n g a n d m o r e e ff i c i e n t w a y o f
conducting a survey is through the
Internet-through e-mails, web sites, or
social media sites. It is more efficient
because the results can be derived in ral
time depending on the availability of the
respondents. Also, it will not require the
researcher to travel physical or spend on
telephone calls or emails
In preparation for the survey, the researcher
must identify what sampling technique to follow,
the number of respondents to be surveyed,
and the blueprint of the questionnaire.
• Sampling techniques- A sample is a
percentage of a specific population carefully
chosen by the researcher to generally
represent the whole population. It includes
probability and nonprobability sampling.
Probability sampling is a technique wherein
samples are given equitable chances or nonzero
chances of being selected from a population.
Nonprobability does not give the samples equal
chances of being selected, because samples are
instead selected according to their accessibility
or personal choice of the researcher.
• Sample size- The researcher must be
able to calculate first the appropriate
sample size in conducting the survey;
otherwise, if the sample size is tool
large, he or she will waste his or her
capital and time, whereas a sample size
that is too small will lead to imprecise
results. Therefore, the sample size must
be the right size.
Questionnaire blueprint. Some tips on how to
create a blueprint for the questionnaire:
• a) Be specific and direct with questions and the
answers required;
• b) Be flexible with respondents convenient way of
answering the questionnaires;
• c) Ensure that each question is necessary and not
repetitive;
• d) Always put yourself in the shoes of your
respondents;
• e)Make sure that questions are arranged in a
coherent order that will lead to the answers
required; and
• f) The questionnaire should look professional, be
divided into strategic parts, and be properly
numbered.