AEB 37 5AES9 Marketing Research Methods

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AEB 37 - 5/AE/S9Marketing Research Methods

• Courses
• MSc Agricultural Economics
• MSc Agricultural Development Economics
• MSc Food Economics Marketing
• Module convenor
• Dr. Mario Mazzocchi (M.Mazzocchi_at_reading.ac.uk)
• Room 310 Extension 6484 Office hours Tue
  4-5 Thu 9-10
• Module contributor Dr. Hal MacFie
• Where and when Wednesday 11-1 room AG 1L14

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Communication tools

• Web page www.rdg.ac.uk/aes02mm/
• Mailing list
• COURSE LIST (Newsletter) Please write clearly
  your e-mail address on the circulating sheet
• FORUM (group) at www.yahoogroups.com
• Office hours
• Do write me e-mails!
• Be aware of departmental policy on
  plagiarism(checking is easier than cheating)

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Intended outcome

• Knowledge of a selection of the techniques used
  by marketing researchers in order to improve the
  quality of information used in decision making.
• To understand the suitability of different
  methods as tools for solving problems commonly
  encountered with food products

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Outline content

• A range of research approaches to solve specific
  marketing problems is presented and discussed.
• 1. The marketing research processes
• 2. Questionnaire development, survey methods and
  sampling fundamentals
• 3. New Product Development preference mapping
• 4. Product positioning - conjoint analysis
• 5. Segmentation cluster analysis
• 6. Advertising research sales and market share
  response

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Course plan
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Textbook

• There is no official textbook.
• These recent books can be especially helpful
• Churchill, G.A., Iacobucci, D. (2002). Marketing
  Research Methodological Foundations. Harcourt
  College Publishers
• Malotra, N.K. (1999) Marketing Research An
  Applied Orientation, 3rd Edition. Upper Saddle
  River (NJ) Prentice Hall.

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Suggested Readings (2)

• The following book (available in the Library)
  covers the course material
• Aaker, D.A., Kumar, V., Day, G.S. (2001),
  Marketing Research, 7th Edition. (The 1998
  Edition is also ok)
• For some topics (indicated during the course) it
  may be useful to read
• East, R. (1997). Consumer Behaviour. London
  Prentice Hall.
• (this textbook is also recommended for the
  Consumer Behaviour and Food Marketing course).
• Technical and frontier articles can be found on
  the
• Journal of Marketing
• Journal of Marketing Research
• Journal of Consumer Research
• Marketing Science

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Module assessment

• 50 Marketing research proposal - Survey
  development (individual)
• 50 Write a marketing research report
  (individuals or groups)
• An informal 20 minutes multiple choice test will
  be administered at mid-term to assess the overall
  progress of the class and to provide an
  opportunity for self assessment.

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Marketing research proposalSurvey development

• You will be given (at the end of next week
  lecture) a marketing research problem, a target
  population and a budget constraint and will be
  asked to
• Define a sampling method (30)
• Propose a questionnaire (50)
• Propose an interviewing strategy (20)
• Each point should be adequately commented and
  motivated. A list of potential problems to be
  faced throughout the data collection process is
  also required.
• This is an individual assignment (50 of the
  overall module mark)
• To be delivered by the 11th of February

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Marketing research report (Data analysis)

• Given a marketing research problem, where the
  data collection step has already been carried
  out, you will be asked to
• Assess the quality of the data provided (identify
  pitfalls, suggest improvements for next surveys)
• Choose a technique to analyse data
• Provide results and comments
• You can either submit the assignment individually
  or opt for a team work.
• Assignment will be available from 1st of February
  and data will be provided on the web site /
  mailing list.
• To be delivered by the 12th of March

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The traffic light for the course slide shows
DEFINITIONS
METHODOLOGY
EXAMPLES
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What is Marketing?

• A wide range of definitions
• Marketing is the management process which
  identifies, anticipates, and supplies customer
  requirements efficiently and profitably
• (Chartered Institute of Marketing, www.cim.co.uk)
• The achievement of corporate goals through
  meeting and exceeding customer needs better than
  the competition (Jobber, 1998)
• Is there any way I can increase sales?

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What isMarketing Research?

• Marketing Research is the function which links
  the consumer, customer and public to the marketer
  through information information used to
  identify and define marketing opportunities and
  problems generate, refine, and evaluate
  marketing actions and improve our understanding
  of marketing as a process(American Marketing
  Association, www.ama.org)

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Information

• The key variable in marketing research is
  information. A marketing researchers must be able
  to identify the best way to
• Collect and organise information
• Analyse information
• Summarise information and make it operational
• These tasks vary according to the customer
  objectives

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Essential characteristics of marketing research

• It must be systematic (organised and planned)
• It must be objective (avoid biases, do not
  anticipate conclusions)

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The Marketing Mix(the four Ps)

• Is the set of controllable variables that the
  firm decision-maker can control
• Product (range, features, quality, packaging)
• Price (level, discounts, credit policy)
• Promotion (advertising, sales promotion)
• Place (channels of distribution, stock levels,
  delivery)
• Borden, N.H. (1965), The concept of Marketing
  Mix. In Schwartz G. (ed.), Science in marketing.
  New York John Wiley

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Product
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Price
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Promotion
1901
2002
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Place
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The marketing Research Process

• Formulate problem
• Determine research design
• Design data-collection method and forms
• Design sample and collect data
• Analyse and interpret the data
• Prepare the research report

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An example of MR process

• FLOP Inc. is a local music publishing company
  that has just signed a new rock boy band. It was
  the most expensive contract of their short
  history and it is a sort of bet on their future
  development. They have little money left in their
  budget, but they will spend most of it on the
  marketing side, as they can not afford to fail
  this attempt.

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The Flop Music Inc.

• The band is very well known and appreciated
  locally, but Flop needs to expand his market at
  least nationally.
• The band needs a new name, but as the components
  did not agree, Flop will take the decision

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The band
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1. The MR problem for Flop

• Objectives
• Identify the target customer
• Decide the band name among 3 alternatives
• Chose an advertising channel (Flop can just
  afford one)

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2. Determine research design

• Secondary data on records sales in UK are
  available, with a set of characteristics that
  influence sales. They say that the following
  factors boost sales
• Scandal stories about sexual behaviours the
  bands components
• Tragic death of the band leader or the whole
  group
• Promo video broadcasted on MTV

They are not famous enough to be considered in
tabloids.
Too risky and legal expenses might be too high
for Flop. And it just works in the short term
Too expensive channel
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3. Design data-collection method and forms

• The marketing consultant decides to start a
  primary data collection and decides
• To make interviews to music shop customers
• To draw the questionnaire asking for
• Customer characteristics (age, tastes)
• Purchasing frequency and behaviour
• Favoured source of news about music
• Multiple choice question on bands name

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Design sample and collect data

• Statistics say that about 71 millions of single
  records where sold in 1995
• Sampling frame Roghly the target customer will
  be above 15 years old and below 45 years old.
  This means a population of 21.5 millions people
  in the UK
• Sampling method A stratified sample. Strata are
• Geographical location of the shop
• Age class of the respondent
• Size of the sample given the time budget
  constraint, the overall sample size will be 2,150
  interviews outside shops

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Analyse and interpret the Data

• Data are edited, coded and tabulated
• A preference mapping analysis helps identifying
  the target consumer and the target media for
  advertising
• A model for sales response to advertising (on
  secondary data) helps choosing the investment in
  ads
• A cross-tabulation analysis for the target
  consumer allows to choose a name for the band

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6. The research report

• Finally, a research report is provided. Results
  are summarised and conclusions are drawn. The
  target consumer is identified as being aged
  between 20 and 30, living in cities, often with a
  degree and using pc a lot
• The advertising tools will consist in a short TV
  ad, and a highly detailed web site
• The name of the band will be Pink Floyd

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Some food marketing examples of MR problems

• Packaging of a food product (e.g. plastic or
  glass bottle for milk) - Product
• Communication to be given to consumers (e.g. beef
  after BSE scare) - Promotion
• Pricing for organic food - Price
• Development of on-line retailing - Place

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Preparing a Research proposal

• The Marketing Problem
• Purpose of the research project
• Data sources and methodology
• Time, personnel and costs

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The Research Report

• Title page
• Table of contents
• Executive summary
• Introduction
• Results
• Conclusion
• Recommendations
• 4. Introduction
• 5. Body
• Methodology
• Results
• Limitations
• 6. Conclusions and recommendations
• 7. Appendix
• Questionnaire
• Sampling methodology and definition
• Other tables not in the report
• Bibliography

• Completeness
• Accuracy
• Clarity

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The SPSS package

• Tutorials will provide a basic understanding of
  the software functioning
• An SPSS example will be given for most of the
  topics covered in this course. You are expected
  to be able
• To repeat the exercise
• To understand the SPSS output for each topic