MARKETING MANAGEMENT

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• MARKETING MANAGEMENT
• WEEK 5
• Marketing Research

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Quantitative versus QualitativeWhen to Use
Different Methods

• Depends on what you are trying to find out
• Choice should always be based on the method best
  suited to answer your research question
• Methods are your tools
• Also compared to lenses that reveal particular
  aspects of consumer behavior

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Quantitative Research

• Description through numbers
• Researcher establishes categories to be measured
  (variables)
• Fixed-response format (scales)
• Hypothesis testing and validation
• Important Terminology
• Causality and Correlation
• Independent and Dependent Variables

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Qualitative Research

• Description through words and images
• Understand (sub)-cultures, experiences, and
  interactions
• Deep understanding
• Naturally occurring data
• Document the world from the point of view of the
  people being studied
• Hypothesis generating
• Can findings be validated and therefore
  generalized?

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Quantitative vs. Qualitative
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Critique of Qualitative Data

• Reliability
• Degree of consistency in ones observation
• Interpretation depends on researcher
• Validity
• An account actually represents the social
  phenomena
• Generalizability
• The representativeness of the study

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Critique of Quantitative Data

• Researcher defines categories, not how the people
  being studied necessarily define them
• Statistical logic obscures common sense
  understandings
• Does not regard naturally occurring interaction
  in normal, everyday contexts
• Interpretation is everywhere variable
  specification, correlation analysis,
  recommendations, etc.
• Lacks depth of understanding

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Hence.

• The question you are trying to answer should
  determine the method(s) used
• Often the use of multiple-methods is appropriate
• Understand the strengths and weaknesses of
  quantitative and qualitative research
• Know why you choose the methods you do

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The Marketing Research Process

• Defining the problem and research objectives
• Developing the research plan
• Implementing the research plan
• Interpreting and reporting the findings

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Developing the Research Plan

• Includes
• Determining the exact information needed.
• Developing a plan for gathering it efficiently.
• Presenting a written plan.
• Outlines
• Sources of existing data
• Specific research approaches
• Contact methods
• Sampling plans
• Instruments for data collection

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Gathering Secondary Data

• Information that already exists somewhere
• Internal databases
• Commercial data services
• Government sources
• Available more quickly and at a lower cost than
  primary data.
• Must be relevant, accurate, current, and
  impartial.

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Primary Data Collection

• Consists of information collected for the
  specific purpose at hand.
• Must be relevant, accurate, current, and
  unbiased.
• Must determine
• Research approach
• Contact methods
• Sampling plan
• Research instruments

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Survey Research

• Most widely used method for primary data
  collection.
• Approach best suited for gathering descriptive
  information.
• Can gather information about peoples knowledge,
  attitudes, preferences, or buying behavior.

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It is not every question that deserves an
answer.Publius Syrus(Roman,1st century B.C.)
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A Good Questionnaire Appears

• As easy to compose as a good poem
• But, it is usually the result of long,
  painstaking work

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The Major Decisions in Questionnaire Design
1. What should be asked? 2. How should each
question be phrased? 3. In what sequence should
the questions be arranged? 4. What
questionnaire layout will best serve the
research objectives? 5. How should the
questionnaire be pretested? Does the
questionnaire need to be revised?
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What Should Be Asked?

• Questionnaire Relevance
• Questionnaire Accuracy

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Phrasing Questions

• Open-Ended Questions
• Fixed-Alternative Questions

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Classifying Surveys by Degree of Structure and
Degree of Disguise
Structured Unstructured
Undisguised Disguised
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Developing a Questionnaire

• No Hard and Fast Rules
• Only Guidelines

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• Avoid Complexity use simple, conversational
  language
• Avoid leading and loaded questions
• Avoid ambiguity be as specific as possible
• Avoid double-barreled items
• Avoid making assumptions
• Avoid burdensome questions

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1a. How many years have you been playing tennis
on a regular basis? Number of years
__________ b. What is your level of
play? Novice . . . . . . . . . . . . . . .
-1 Advanced . . . . . . . -4 Lower Intermediate
. . . . . -2 Expert . . . . . . . . . -5 Upper
Intermediate . . . . . -3 Teaching Pro . . . .
-6 c. In the last 12 months, has your level
of play improved, remained the same or
decreased? Improved. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. -1 Decreased. . . . . . . -3 Remained the
same . . . . . -2
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2a. Do you belong to a club with tennis
facilities? Yes . . . . . . . -1 No
. . . . . . . -2 b. How many people in
your household - including yourself - play
tennis? Number who play tennis ___________
3a. Why do you play tennis? (Please X all
that apply.) To have fun . . . . . . . . . .
-1 To stay fit. . . . . . . . . . . .
-2 To be with friends. . . . . . -3 To
improve my game . . . -4 To compete. . . . . .
. . . . . -5 To win. . . . . . . . . . . . . .
. -6 b. In the past 12 months, have you
purchased any tennis instructional books
or video tapes? Yes . . . . . . .
-1 No . . . . . . . -2
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Dear Passenger American Airlines is pleased to
have you on board today. To help us provide the
best service possible, we need to know more about
you and your opinions of our service. If you are
over 11 years old, we would appreciate it if you
would complete this questionnaire. Your flight
attendant will pick up your completed
questionnaire shortly. Thank you.
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1. Please indicate Flight number ___________
Date_____________ 2a. At the city where you
boarded this particular plane, did you make a
connection from another flight? Yes, from
American . . . . 1 Yes, from Other Airline .
. 2 No . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . . 3
b. Did you board this plane at the airport from
which it just took off, or were you a through
passenger for which that was an intermediate
stop? Boarded here . . . . . . . . .
. 1 Through passenger. . . . . . 2 3. How
would you rate the overall service from American
for this flight, all things considered, from your
arrival at the airport terminal until
now? Excellent Good Fair
Poor Overall Service . . . . . . . . . . 1 2
3 4
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4. Please rate each of the following with regard
to this flight, if applicable.
Excellent Good Fair Poor 1
2 3 4
Courtesy and Treatment from the Skycap at
airport . . . . . . . . . . . . . . Airport
Ticket Counter Agent . . . . . Boarding Point
(Gate) Agent . . . . . Flight Attendants . . .
. . . . . . . . . . . Your Meal or Snack. . . . .
. . . . . . . . Beverage Service . . . . . . . .
. . . . . . Seat Comfort. . . . . . . . . . . . .
. . . . . Carry-On Stowage Space. . . . . . .
. Cabin Cleanliness . . . . . . . . . . . . .
Video/Stereo Entertainment . . . . . . On-Time
Departure . . . . . . . . . . . .
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Experimental Research

• Tries to explain cause-and-effect relationships.
• Involves
• selecting matched groups of subjects
• giving different treatments
• controlling unrelated factors
• checking differences in group responses

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Projective techniques

• Free words associations
• Sentences completion
• TAT (thematic apperception test)
• Vignette comment
• Cartoon
• Role play

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Focus group

• Group discussion (6-12 individuals), lead by an
  expert
• Advantages
• motivations emerge spontaneously and quickly,
  thanks to action/reaction processes
• Disadvantages
• group may cooperate, determining biased results,
  especially if there is group heterogeneity
  (leadership) group dynamics

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Contact method Personal interviews

• Advantages
• Flexibility and reliability
• Control of identity of respondents and sample
  composition
• Low refusal rate
• Disadvantages
• High cost
• Interviewer discretionality

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Contact method telephone interviews

• Advantages
• Speed
• Low cost
• Low refusal rate
• Big samples
• Disadvantages
• Short and superficial interview

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Contact method mail interviews

• Advantages
• Large sample
• Low cost
• No interviewer (adv./ disadv..)
• Disadvantages
• Slow
• High refusal rate
• No check on interviewee identity

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Sampling Plan

• Sample segment of the population selected to
  represent the population as a whole.
• Sampling requires three decisions
• Who is to be surveyed?
• Sampling unit
• How many people should be surveyed?
• Sample size
• How should the people in the sample be chosen?
• Sampling procedure

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ETHNOGRAPHIC FIELD STRATEGIES

• Interviewing
• Observation

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What is Fieldwork?

• Out there
• Participation and Observation
• Non-Interference
• Long-Term
• Gaining Access to the Emic Perspective

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Field Access Getting In

• Overt vs. Covert
• Reactivity
• Attitude of the Researcher
• Gaining Entry

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Watching, Listening and Learning

• Take in the physical setting
• Develop relationships
• Tracking, observing and listening
• Subgroups and stars
• Thick description

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THICK DESCRIPTION

• Is multisensory
• Describes people and things
• Uses informant quotes
• Provides for transferability

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Critical Incidents

• A specific critical event
• Recorded in descriptive terms
• One event specific persons, locations and times
  observed or verifiable defining as typical or
  atypical

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Becoming Invisible

• Hawthorne Effect
• Disattending
• Dangers of Invisibility

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DISENGAGING
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Observation is the systematic description of
events, behaviors, and artifacts in the social
setting chosen for the study (Marshall and
Rossman 1989, p. 79)
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Observations

• Range from focused to unstructured
• Identify salient and atypical features
• Require sufficient time and planning
• Can involve secrecy (not recommended)
• Vary in degree of participation
• Interact with interviews

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Observation...Lincoln and Guba 1981, p. 193

• Motives, beliefs, concerns, interests, behaviors,
  customs
• See the world as subjects see it, live in their
  time frames, capture the phenomenon in and on its
  own terms
• access to the emotional reactions of the
  group...permits the observer to use himself as a
  data source

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A Dramaturgical Look at Interviewing

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Interviewing

• Types of interviews standardized,
  semistandardized, unstandardized
• Types of questions essential, extra,
  throw-away, probing
• Problems affective wording, Why?,
  double-barreled, complexity, sequencing

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Interviewing Techniques

• Self-assurance and preparation
• Establishing roles and rapport
• Letting the interviewee speak
• Silence is golden
• Avoid leading
• Questions of closure

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Interviewing Issues

• Sampling
• Recording
• Confidentiality
• Number of participants in a single interview
• Number of interviews

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Interviewing as Drama
Looking and playing the Part
Self-conscious performing
Social interpretations--how things
are said
Actors, Directors, Choreographers
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Implementing the Research Plan

• Collecting the data
• Most expensive phase
• Subject to error
• Processing the data
• Check for accuracy
• Code for analysis
• Analyzing the data
• Tabulate results

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Interpreting and Reporting Findings

• Interpret the findings
• Draw conclusions
• Report to management
• Present findings and conclusions that will be
  most helpful to decision making.