Lecture - 4

MARKETING
RESEARCH

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Session Objective/s
• Define research design and classify various research
designs
• Explain the differences between exploratory,
descriptive and causal research designs

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

 Activity 1
State the research problems for each of the following
management decision problems.
1. Should a new product be introduced?
2. Should an advertisement campaign that has run for three
years be changed?
3. Should the in-store promotion for an existing product line
be increased?
4. What pricing strategy should be adopted for a new product?
5. Should the compensation package be changed to better
motivate the sales force?
 Activity 2
State the management decision problems that might be
addressed through the following market research exercises.
1. Estimate the sales and market share of department stores in a
certain metropolitan area.
2. Determine the design features for a new product that would result
in maximum market share
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of alternative TV commercials
4. Assess current and proposed sales territories with respect to their
sales potential and workload
5. Determine the prices for each product line to maximise total sales
for the product line.
Answers- activity 1
1. Should a new product be introduced?
RP: Assess the probable market size and acceptance for the product.
2. Should an advertisement campaign that has run for three years be changed?
RP: How effective has the campaign been in boosting sales in the past three
years?
3. Should the in-store promotion for an existing product line be increased?
RP: Determine how the various levels of in-store promotion affect the sales.
4. What pricing strategy should be adopted for a new product?
RP: Determine the relationship between price and demand for a new product.
5. Should the compensation package be changed to better motivate the sales force?
RP: Determine the relation between alternative compensation packages and the
respective sales performance.
Answers- activity 2
1. Estimate the sales and market share of department stores in a certain metropolitan area.
MDP: Should a new store be opened in a certain metropolitan area?
2. Determine the design features for a new product that would result in maximum market
share
MDP: Should a new product be introduced? If so, what features should it have?
3. Evaluate the effectiveness of alternative TV commercials
MDP: Should the present TV commercial be changed?
4. Assess current and proposed sales territories with respect to their sales potential and
workload
MDP: How many new sales people have to be hired?
5. Determine the prices for each product line to maximise total sales for the product line.
MDP: How should the various items in the product line be priced so as to maximize revenue
Components of a Research Design
• Define the information needed
• Design the exploratory, descriptive, and/or causal phases of the
research
• Specify the measurement and scaling procedures
• Construct and pretest a questionnaire (interviewing form) or an
appropriate form for data collection
• Specify the sampling process and sample size
• Develop a plan of data analysis
 Three types of marketing research problems
Ambiguous Problems know very little about the issues
• Example- introduction of radically new technologies or products

Somewhat defined
problems we know the issues (and variables) but not how they are related
• For example, when an organization wants to export products, it is relatively easy to obtain all sorts of information on market sizes,
economic development, and the political and legal system. However, how these variables impact the exporting success may be very
uncertain.

Clearly defined the important issues and variables, as well as their relationships, are clear.
problems However, we do not know how to make the best possible choice.
• While organizations know that increasing (or decreasing) prices generally leads to decreased (increased) demand, the precise
relationship (i.e., how many units do we sell less when the price is increased by $1?) is unknown
Research problems and research designs are interrelated

Ambiguous Problems
Exploratory research

Somewhat defined
problems
Descriptive research

Clearly defined problems

Causal research
 Ambiguous Somewhat Clearly defined
problems defined problems problems

Exploratory Descriptive Causal Research

research research
• Understand structure • Describe customers or • Uncover causality
• Formulate problems competitors • Understand the
precisely • Understand market performance effects
Uses • Generate hypotheses size of marketing mix
• Segment markets elements
• Develop
measurement scales • Measure performance
(e.g., share of wallet,
brand awareness)
More Than Just Causes
A Classification of Marketing Research
Designs
A Comparison of Basic Research Designs
Exploratory Descriptive Causal
Objective: Discovery of ideas and Describe market characteristics Determine cause-and-
insights or functions effect relationships
Characteristics: Flexible, versatile Marked by the prior formulation Manipulation of one or
of specific hypotheses more independent
variables
Often the front end of Preplanned and structured Measure the effect on
total research design design dependent variable(s)
Control of other mediating
variables
Methods: Expert surveys, Pilot Secondary data: quantitative Experiments
surveys analysis,
Case studies, Surveys,
Secondary data: qualitative Panels,
analysis, Observation and other data
Qualitative research
Uses of Exploratory Research
• Formulate a problem or define a problem more precisely
• Identify alternative courses of action
• Develop hypotheses
• Isolate key variables and relationships for further examination
• Gain insights for developing an approach to the problem
• Establish priorities for further research
 Exploratory Research
Focus groups 6 and 10 participants, who discuss a defined topic under the leadership of a moderator
• The key difference between a depth interview and focus group is that focus group participants can interact with one another

In-depth interviews an interviewer asking an interviewee several questions.

• In-depth interviews allow probing on a one-to-one basis, which fosters interaction between the interviewer and the respondent

Projective techniques present people with pictures, words, or other stimuli to which they respond
• For example, a researcher could ask what people think of BMW owners

(“A BMW owner is someone who … .”)

 Exploratory Research
Observational studies an observer monitors and interprets participants’ behavior
• For example, someone could monitor how consumers spend their time in shops or how
they walk through the aisles of a supermarket.

researcher interacts with consumers over a period to observe

Ethnographies and ask questions
• For example, a researcher living with a family observes how they buy, consume and use products.
 Use of Descriptive Research
• To describe the characteristics of relevant groups, such as consumers,
salespeople, organizations, or market areas
• To estimate the percentage of units in a specified population exhibiting a certain
behavior
• To determine the perceptions of product characteristics
• To determine the degree to which marketing variables are associated
• To make specific predictions
Descriptive research assumes that the researcher has much prior
knowledge about the problem situation.
In the case on causes, the relevant social causes had already been
identified through exploratory research before the descriptive survey was
conducted.
Cross-Sectional Designs
• Involve the collection of information from any given sample of
population elements only once.
• In single cross-sectional designs, there is only one sample of
respondents and information is obtained from this sample only
once.
• In multiple cross-sectional designs, there are two or more samples
of respondents, and information from each sample is obtained only
once. Often, information from different samples is obtained at
different times.
• Cohort analysis consists of a series of surveys conducted at
appropriate time intervals, where the cohort serves as the basic unit
of analysis. A cohort is a group of respondents who experience the
same event within the same time interval.
Cohort analysis
Consumption of Soft Drinks by various Age cohorts (Percentage consuming on a typical day)

Age 1950 1960 1969 1979

8-19 52.9 62.6 73.2 81.0

20-29 45.2 60.7 76.0 75.8

30-39 33.9 46.6 67.7 71.4

40-49 23.2 40.8 58.6 67.8

50+ 18.1 28.8 50.0 51.9

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Longitudinal Designs
• A type of research design involving a fixed sample of population elements that is
measured repeatedly.
• The sample remains the same over time, thus providing a series of pictures that,
when viewed together, portray a vivid illustration of the situation and changes
that are taking place over time

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Cross-sectional or Longitudinal?
• What are the most important political issues to Indians in 2023

• How did Indians change their views of the most important political issues
between 2010 and 2020

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Cross-sectional and Longitudinal Designs
Evaluative criteria Cross-sectional Design Longitudinal Design
Detecting Change - +
Large amount of data collection - +
Accuracy - +
Representative sampling + -
Response Bias + -

Note: A + indicates a relative advantage over the other design, whereas a – indicates a relative disadvantage

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Longitudinal design- Panels
• A panel consists of respondents who have agreed to provide information at
specified intervals over an extended period.
• Syndicated firms maintain panels and panel members are compensated for their
participation with gifts, coupons, information or cash.

• Visit BARC India at https://barcindia.co.in/about and review their panel

recruitment process

Tajamul Islam-Symbiosis Institute of Management Studies-Pune

Cross-Sectional vs. Longitudinal

Cross- Sample
Sectional Surveyed
Design at T1

Sample Same Sample

Longitudinal
Surveyed at also Surveyed
Design
T1 at T2

Time → T1 T2