Resources:

Marketing an Introduction / Gary Armstrong, Philip Kotler

Marketing Research and Information Systems

The importance of Information

• A marketing information system (MIS) – consists of people, equipment, and procedures to gather, sort, analyze, evaluate, and distribute needed, timely and accurate information to marketing decision makers.

The Marketing Information System

The Marketing Information System

The Marketing Research Process

Defining the problem and

research objectives Developing the

research plan for collectinginformation Implementing the

research plan – collecting and

analyzing the dataInterpreting and

reporting the findings

Defining the Problem and Research objectives

CausalResearch

CausalResearch

DescriptiveResearch

DescriptiveResearch

ExploratoryResearch

ExploratoryResearch

Test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

Test hypotheses about cause-and-effect relationships.

Describes things as market potential for a product or the demographics and consumers’ attitudes.

Describes things as market potential for a product or the demographics and consumers’ attitudes.

Gathers preliminary information that will help define the problem and suggest hypotheses.

Gathers preliminary information that will help define the problem and suggest hypotheses.

• Research plan development follows these steps:

– Determining Specific Information Needs

– Gathering Secondary information– Planning Primary Data Collection

Developing the Research Plan

• Secondary data consist of information that already exists somewhere, having been collected for another purpose.

• Internal sources• Government publications• Periodicals and books• Commercial data• International data

Gathering Secondary information

• The researcher must evaluate secondary information carefully to make certain that it is

– relevant - fits research project needs– accurate - reliably collected and

reported)– current - up-to-date enough for current

decisions– impartial – objectively collected and

reported

Gathering Secondary information

Planning Primary Data Collection

• Primary data consist of information collected for the specific purpose at hand.

Research

Approach

Contact

Methods

Sampling

Plan

Research

Instruments

Observation Mail Sampling unit Questionnaire

Survey Telephone Sample size Mechanical

InstrumentsExperiment Personal, PC

Research Approaches

Observational Research

Gathering data by observing people, actions and situations

(Exploratory)

Survey Research

Asking individuals about attitudes, preferences or

buying behaviors (Descriptive)

Experimental Research

Using groups of people to determine

cause-and-effectrelationships

(Causal)

Strengths and Weaknesses of Contact Methods

Mail Telephone Personal Computer

Flexibility Poor Good Excellent Good

Quantity of data that can be collected

Good Fair Excellent Good

Control of interviewer effect Excellent

Fair Poor Excellent

Control of sample Fair Excellent Fair Fair

Speed of data collection Poor Excellent Good Fair

Response rate Fair Good Good Fair

Cost Good Fair Poor Fair

Sampling Plans

• A sample is a segment of the population selected to represent the population as a whole.

• Sampling unit – who is to be surveyed• Sample size – how many people should be surveyed• Sampling procedure – how should the people in the sample be chosen

Implementing the Research Plans

Collecting the Data

Processing the Data

Analyzing the Data

Interpreting and Reporting the Findings

Step 1. Interpret the Findings

Step 2. Draw Conclusions

Step 3. Report to Management

Research Problem Areas

• Making assumptions• Lack of Qualitative information• Failing to look at segments within a sample• Using biased questions in surveys