2-1

Growth of the Need for Marketing

Research
The Industrial Revolution led to
manufacturers producing goods for
distant markets.
Manufacturers needed to know about
faraway consumers.
This led to the growing need for
marketing research.

3-2

The Marketing Research Process

Steps
1 Establish Need
2 Define Problem
3 Research Objectives

Figure out what to

research (Chapters
2 & 4)

4
5
6
7
8

Determine Design
Design the way to do
Identify Information Sources
the research
Decide Data Collection Method
(Chapters 5-13)
Design Questionnaire
Determine Sample Plan & Size
Gather data from respondents
9 Collect Data
(Chapter 14)
Generate findings and
10 Analyze Data
interpret them
11 Write and Present Report
(Chapters 15-20)
2-3

Caveats:
The Marketing Research Process
Not always presented as an 11-step
process
Not all studies use all 11 steps
Few studies follow the steps in order

2-4

Step 1: Establish the Need for

Marketing Research
When is marketing research NOT
needed?

2-5

Classifying Firms in the Marketing

Research Industry
Research Suppliers
Internal Suppliers
External Suppliers
Limited Service Suppliers
Full Service Suppliers

3-6

Industry Structure:
Internal Suppliers
Internal suppliers: an entity within the
firm supplies marketing research
Methods of Organization
Marketing function: ad research,
product research, pricing research,
channel
Research process: data analysis, data
collection
Area of application: brands,
customers...
3-7

Industry Structure:
External Suppliers
External suppliers: outside firms hired to
fulfill a firms marketing research needs
Methods of Organization
Function: data analysis & collection
Type of research application: ad
research
Geography: domestic, international
Types of customers, finance, health
Combination of the above
3-8

The Marketing Research Industry

Classification of Marketing Research
Suppliers

3-9

ETHICS

Some Ethical Marketing Research

Situations: Class Exercises

3-10

Is this Ethical?
1. A research company decides to leave
a message on prospective
respondents answering machines
telling them that if they call back in
the next 24 hours, they will receive a
valuable prize if they take part in a
survey.

3-11

Is this Ethical?
2. Upon completion of an interview, the
respondent is asked to provide the
names and telephone numbers of
others he or she thinks should take
part in the survey.

3-12

Is this Ethical?
3. A door-to-door salesman finds that by
telling people that he is conducting a
survey, they are more likely to listen
to his sales pitch.

3-13

Is this Ethical?
4. The cover letter of a mail
questionnaire says that it will "only
take a few minutes to fill out." But
pretests have shown that at least
fifteen minutes are needed to fill it
out.

3-14

Is this Ethical?
5. Telephone interviewers are instructed
to assure the respondent of
confidentiality only if the respondent
asks about it.

3-15

Is this Ethical?
6. A client insists on inspecting the
completed questionnaires to assess
their validity, but the researcher
suspects that the client is really
interested in finding out what
specific respondents said about the
client.

3-16

Is this Ethical?
7. In the appendix of the final report,
the researcher lists the names of all
respondents who took part in the
survey, and places an asterisk beside
the names of those who indicated
agreement to be contacted by the
client's sales personnel.

3-17

Ethical Issues with Online Surveys

Spam surveys

3-18

Why are Ethical Issues Problematic?

Two competing ethical philosophies:
Deontology holds that if an (any)
individual's rights are violated, then the
behavior is not ethical.
Teleology says to judge a given behavior in
terms of its benefits and costs to society:
if there are individual costs but group
benefits, then there are net gains (versus
net losses) and the behavior is judged to
be ethical.
3-19

Ethical Issues Research Integrity

Sugging selling under the guise of
conducting research
Frugging fund-raising under the guise
of conducting research

3-20

Ethical Issues Research Integrity

Misrepresentation and omission of
pertinent research data
Changing results to suit need
Making up results from scratch

Treat clients, suppliers, and the public

fairly

3-21

Ethical Issues with Respondents

Respondent cooperation has been going
down
Marketing researchers should:
Eliminate or keep deception to a
minimum
If promised, guarantee anonymity or
confidentiality
Fight invasions of privacy such as
telemarketing and SPAM
3-22

Panels
Marketing research companies are
making greater use of panels
Recruiting respondents who agree to
participate in future studies
Panel Equity, the value of having
access to a large number of consumers
willing to cooperate in studies, will
increase in the future
3-23