steps1 4 slides

STEP 1: Establish the need for marketing researchSTEP 2: Define the problemSTEP 3: Establish research objectivesSTEP 4: Determine research designSTEP 5: Identify information types and sources*

Research Process Steps Covered in the First Exam

*Covered in the extra credit question

1

STEP 1: Establish the need for marketing research

2

We recognize that we have a decision that we need to make, but that we aren’t sure if we have the information required to make it. Often, this begins as recognition of a symptom rather than a problem itself, so we know that there’s a decision that needs to be made, but we might not always know exactly what that decision is yet.

If we DO have the information needed to make the decision, we can proceed to make the decision without research.

If we DON’T have the information needed, we proceed to step 2.

STEP 2: Define the problem

3

As we look at the situation that prompted us to consider marketing research, we need to recognize that the problem source is often different from the symptoms. Once we identify the problem source*, we need to spell out exactly what our problem is and what we are considering doing to solve it.

In marketing research, this generally means writing a problem statement that lays out the decision that needs to be made to address the problem source.

*Failure to meet objectives or an opportunity

STEP 3: Establish research objectives

4

Research objectives are specific statements written once a problem is defined to spell out the themes or areas of concern (“constructs”) that will be addressed by the upcoming research.

Research objectives should be specifically worded and explain the construct that is being measured. Some researchers (including your textbook authors) even go so far as to explain how that construct will be measured.

Others include a series of accompanying research questions to further break down each objective into areas of study.

STEP 4: Determine research design

5

Once the problem has been defined and the objectives for what needs to be known have been set, we must determine the character of the information we are trying to collect.

Are we looking to gain context, background information or ideas? Then we are conducting exploratory research.

Are we looking to find out characteristics of the population or sample? Then we are conducting descriptive research.

Are we trying to establish a cause-and-effect relationship? Then we are conducting causal research.

A WORD OF CAUTION

6

Don’t get confused about these three terms and others that tie in.

Secondary research is often consulted for exploratory purposes, but it can be used for descriptive or causal studies!

Likewise, qualitative research is generally exploratory, but it can be conducted for descriptive or causal research under certain circumstances!

Likewise, primary research and quantitative research can be used for exploratory studies!

EXAMPLE 1 – Trip to Chicago

7

Two of my friends have never been to Chicago. They are considering taking a trip this March.

Let’s pretend they’re going to use the research process to help them in their decision.

Trip to Chicago – STEP 1

8

STEP 1 – Establish the need for research

My friends can discuss whether or not they want to put the time and interest into conducting research and whether it’s needed.

Research will be time-consuming, and some adventures are more fun if you don’t have a plan!

But in this case, they’re not convinced the trip is worth their time and money, so they opt to continue on with research.


9

STEP 2 – Define the problem

My friends’ research problem is simple:

“We need to conduct research to help us decide whether we should take a trip to Chicago in March or if we should stay in the Metro East.”

The decision involves whether or not they will take a trip. The research conducted will help them make that decision.


10

STEP 3 – Establish Research Objectives

Before my friends conduct any research, they determine that they are going to consider the following areas of concern. We can call these “constructs.”• Expense: How expensive will this trip be likely to be?• Attractions: What attractions do they need to visit?• Overall Satisfaction: How satisfied and how likely to

return do they feel they will be at the end of the trip?

Note that these constructs can’t be addressed through research yet. We need to turn them into objectives!

Trip to Chicago – STEP 3 (cont’d)

11

Let’s turn those into research objective statements.• Expense: Determine what a typical visit to Chicago has

cost friends and family members and what aspects of a trip can cause this price to rise or fall.

• Attractions: Determine which attractions are the most important or worthwhile to visit on a first trip to Chicago.

• Satisfaction: Assess how satisfied friends and family members have been with their trips to Chicago and how likely they would be to return.


12

STEP 4 – Determine research design

With the problem statement they are currently using, my friends would be best off trying exploratory research. They could conduct individual interviews with friends and family members and consult secondary sources (travel blogs, travel books, message boards, etc) to obtain enough information to feel relatively confident about their decision.

But could they also try descriptive or causal research?


13

If they found at the end of their exploratory research that they needed to get more data through descriptive research, they could retain their problem statement and adjust their research objectives:Expense: Determine the average trip price for someone for someone from the St. Louis area who is visiting Chicago for a weekend.Attractions: Determine the highest-rated attractions that St. Louis area residents enjoy in Chicago.Satisfaction: Assess the average level of satisfaction that St. Louis area residents feel after a trip to Chicago.


14

If they found at the end of their exploratory research that they needed to get more data through causal research to understand how much money a person needs to spend to have a good time in Chicago, they might want to reword their problem statement to say:

“We need to conduct research to determine how much money we need to spend on our trip and how many attractions we need to visit to have a great time.”


15

Then, they could redefine their research objectives to be more causal in design.

Expense vs Satisfaction: Determine if there is a causal link between how much money an individual spends on a trip to Chicago and how high his or her satisfaction is with that trip.

Attractions vs Satisfaction: Determine if there is a causal link between which attractions an individual visits in Chicago and how high his or her satisfaction is with that trip.”


16

You should note that while it’s possible to conduct all three types of research for this scenario, the problem statement has to be redefined to encompass the type of design.

You’ll also notice that the exploratory design is the most likely to benefit my friends, and it will probably yield the most useful information for them.

EXAMPLE 2 – Bad Haircut

17

You probably noticed that I received a Bad Haircut today. It’s a common experience for me.

Let’s say I decide to conduct some research to try to understand why I’m always getting Bad Haircuts. Is it the service providers, or is it the choices I make?

Bad Haircut – STEP 1

18


I’m tired of getting Bad Haircuts, so I decide it’s a good idea to spend some time figuring out how I can get better ones.

Research seems warranted because I don’t trust the people cutting my hair to be honest with me.


19


My problem can be defined thusly:

“I need to conduct research to help me decide whether or not I should change my approach in how I get haircuts.”

The decision involves whether or not I will change my approach. The research conducted will help me make that decision.


20


Once again, I need to establish the constructs I’ll be looking into.

Hairdresser skill: I need to understand if skill plays a role in getting a better haircut.Hairdresser price: I need to understand if the price I’m paying is a reliable indicator of the quality of my cut.Hairdresser style: I need to understand if I’m better off at a mass market service provider or a more specialized salon.

Bad Haircut – STEP 3 (cont’d)

21

Let’s turn those into research objectives.

Hairdresser skill: Determine the baseline level of skill required to give a quality haircut to a man.Hairdresser price: Determine whether the price of a haircut has any relationship to the quality of the cut.Hairdresser style: Determine whether the business model under which a hairdresser operates has any relationship to the quality of the cut.


22


Strictly speaking, this is a straightforward causal project. I’m attempting to isolate variables that act as predictors of an outcome – in other words, to prove that if I manipulate skill, price or style, I can have a measurable effect on quality.

I’d have to conduct such research through a quantitative study with a causal experimental design. I’d probably have to interview hundreds of people to assess their perceptions of quality of a haircut and validate that against expert opinions.


23

Could I use an exploratory or descriptive style?

Descriptive research would be relatively straightforward under the problem definition I set, because I’m simply trying to decide whether or not I need to change my approach.

Exploratory research would probably also work.

Proving cause and effect would be nice, but it’d be difficult. Let’s look at how I can use these other types of research to support my decision.


24

My exploratory design could remove the cause and effect aspects of my research objectives and just attempt to assess the opinions of consumers and of experts.

I could conduct some individual interviews, consult expert secondary sources (journals, trade publications, training materials, etc.) and even conduct some observational research with different hairdressers to see if I could observe any differences in quality.


25

My descriptive design could remove the cause and effect aspects of my original research objectives and just rely on the “wisdom of crowds”.

I could conduct a short survey with people in my extended social circles to get them to rate their experiences with their hairdressers. I could then see if there are any statistical insights that could tell me what the most likely path to quality would be.

EXAMPLE 3 – CLEAN-O

26

Let’s talk about our favorite fictitious brand, CLEAN-O, so we can specifically apply this to marketing research.

Let’s say that we’re the brand managers for CLEAN-O and that our CMO tells us that we need to conduct research in 2013 to assess CLEAN-O’s brand value versus its competitors.

This is a really tricky assignment, so we need to first ask ourselves… can research give us this answer, or should we try to calculate this value using some other data (like market share or sales numbers?)

CLEAN-O – STEP 1

27


“Just get to work!” our CMO tells us. So, we’re going to have to conduct research.

And we realize that, aside from market share and different dimensions of sales numbers, we have no agreed-upon idea what our brand means to our customers or how CLEAN-O differs from its competitors. So we do need research after all.

CLEAN-O – STEP 2

28


Yikes! Did you notice something? We don’t actually have a problem to solve yet. We were just told to do some research.

So, we talk amongst ourselves and realize that not only do we not know how consumers feel about our brand, but we haven’t conducted a brand refresh in some time. It might be a good idea to update our logo and what our brand stands for.

CLEAN-O – STEP 2 (cont’d)

29

So, we decide to define our problem this way:

“We need to conduct research to determine whether or not it is time to refresh our brand and, if so, what steps we need to take to do so.”

Even though this is a slightly more complex problem statement, it’s still about a decision (refreshing the brand) supported by research (about the whether and how of our decision).

CLEAN-O – STEP 3

30


Our constructs might be:

Brand perceptions: How is the CLEAN-O brand currently perceived by consumers?Brand attributes: What do consumers associate with the CLEAN-O brand?Brand benefits: What benefits help consumers decide to consider using CLEAN-O?Brand distinction: What makes CLEAN-O distinctive from the competition?


31

Let’s turn those into research objectives.

Brand perceptions: Determine how consumers perceive the CLEAN-O brand.Brand attributes: Determine which attributes consumers associate with the CLEAN-O brand.Brand benefits: Determine which benefits consumers perceive they are receiving from CLEAN-O brand products.Brand distinction: Determine how CLEAN-O products are perceived compared to competitors within the category.

CLEAN-O – STEP 4

32


Our research problem is broad enough that we can address it through exploratory and descriptive research quite easily, though for causal research, we’re going to have to define our problem a little bit.

Since we’re starting from a point of knowing very little, our objectives are best-suited for exploratory research right now.


33

Our exploratory research would likely involve focus groups and/or in-depth interviews where we ask consumers to help us to understand the four constructs we’re measuring.

We could also conduct some secondary research on the product category (scanner data from a syndicated source, or perhaps one of those syndicated reports about brand presence), and we could check with our retail partners to see if we could obtain receipt data reports and other tracking information to learn more about our customers for context.


34

From here, we would likely want to move on to descriptive research, which would allow us to gain statistical insights about the things we’ve learned during the exploratory phase.

This one’s a no-brainer. We’d conduct a survey with the general population of consumers and attempt to measure the most commonly-used brands in the category. We’d use this data to conduct a brand assessment analysis along our four constructs.


35

Let’s say in the descriptive phase we become suspicious that price has an impact on the perception of effectiveness – namely, the more a price deviates from the average, the more likely consumers are to assume it’s a knock-off (low price) or overpriced (high price), neither of which is perceived as being the best in quality. Currently, CLEAN-O is priced about a dollar below the average.

This would be a fruitful area for causal research. We’d redefine our problem statement to determine if we should consider changing our price.


36

This would be a fruitful area for causal research. We’d redefine our problem statement to determine if we should consider changing our price to achieve a higher feeling of effectiveness in consumers. We would also investigate if this feeling of higher effectiveness would impact intent to purchase.

We’d also redefine our objectives to talk about investigating this causal link, and then we’d use a quantitative method to measure consumer perceptions of quality versus prices paid for cleaning products, and intent to purchase.

CLOSING NOTES

37

Remember that when we DEFINE THE PROBLEM, we’re generally making a decision that’s related to a problem source (failure to meet objectives or opportunity.)

Note that in all three of the examples I’m citing, we’re talking about opportunities (defined in your textbook as the difference between what did happen and what could have happened, but projected into the future a bit so that we’re looking at what will happen and what could happen.)

CLOSING NOTES (cont’d)

38

Let’s try to think of research as being like getting ready for an expedition into parts unknown.

If we don’t conduct research, we’re doomed to wander and to merely hope we emerge from the wilderness alive.

If we do conduct research, we can use our steps to ensure that we have a much more pleasant experience.

CLOSING NOTES (cont’d)

39

Think of the RESEARCH PROBLEM as being the statement of “where we’re going” – eventually, all of this activity is going to lead us to a decision outcome.

The RESEARCH OBJECTIVES provide us with the answer of “what route we’re going to use to get there.”

The RESEARCH DESIGN helps us to further understand “what type of vehicle we’re going to use to get us there.”

steps1 4 slides

Documents